LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR: 

Fasting Communion 

HISTORICALLY INVESTIGATED FROM THE CAN- 
ONS AND FATHERS, AND SHOWN TO BE 
NOT BINDING IN ENGLAND. Second Edition. 
8vo, cloth, $5.00. 



THOMAS WHITTAKER, 
NEW YORK. 



THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, 1890. 



GOD INCARNATE 



BY THE 

RIGHT REV. HOLLINGWORTH TULLY KINGDON, D.D., 

BISHOP COADJUTOR, OF FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA. 




NEW YORK : 

THOMAS WHITTAKER, 

2 and 3 Bible House. 

1890. 






COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
By THOMAS WHITTAKER. 



The Li 

OF COI 



WASHINGTON 



BURR PRINTING HOUSE, 
fRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETSi NEW YORK 



THE 

BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES. 

In the summer of the year 1880, George A. Jar- 
vis, of Brooklyn, N. Y., moved by his sense of the 
great good which might thereby accrue to the cause 
of Christ, and to the Church of which he was' an 
ever-gratefui member, gave to the General Theo- 
logical Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
certain securities, exceeding in value eleven thousand 
dollars, for the foundation and maintenance of a Lec- 
tureship in said seminary. 

Out of love for a former pastor and enduring 
friend, the Right Rev. Benjamin Henry Paddock, 
D. D. , Bishop of Massachusetts, he named the founda- 
tion " The Bishop Paddock Lectureship." 

The deed of trust declares that, — 

" The subjects of the lectures shall be such as appertain to the defence 
of the religion of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Holy Bible, and 
illustrated in the Book of Common Prayer, against the varying errors 
of the day, whether materialistic, rationalistic, or professedly religious, 
and also to its defence and confirmation in respect of such central 
truths as the Trinity, the Atonement, Justification, and the Inspiration 
of the Word of God ; and of such central facts as the Church's Divine 
Order and Sacraments, her historical Reformation, and her rights and 



VI THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES. 

powers as a pure and national Church. And other subjects may be 
chosen if unanimously approved by the Board of Appointment as being 
both timely and also within the true intent of this Lectureship." 

Under the appointment of the board created by 
the Trust, the Right Rev. Hollingworth Tully King- 
don, D.D., Bishop Coadjutor of Fredericton, New- 
Brunswick, delivered the Lectures for the year 1890, 
which are contained in this volume. 



PREFACE 



The conditions of the Trust under which the fol- 
lowing Lectures were delivered, require that they 
should be printed. In no way is there any claim of 
originality for them. Indeed, the only merit they 
may have is that they endeavor to express old truths 
sometimes in modern words, rarely in new language. 

It will be objected that the subject is too vast for 
treatment in so small a space. But the object has 
been to stimulate inquiry within the limits prescribed 
by the Trust. It is of the utmost importance that 
the attention of candidates for Holy Orders should 
be concentrated upon- the fundamental doctrine of 
the Incarnation. At no time has this been of greater 
importance than at the present moment. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Lecture I. — "The Creator." i 

Text.— S. John i., 1-5. 

Lecture II. — "The Creature." . . . .20 

Text. — S. John i.\ 1-5. 

Lecture III. — "The Incarnation." ... 43 

Text. — S. John i., 14. 

LECTURE IV.— " Perfection of Sympathy." . . 66 
Text.—/. S. John i., 1. 

Lecture V.— "The Atonement." .... 93 

Text.— S. John i., 29. 
LECTURE VI.—" The Sacraments/' . . .126 

Text. — S. John i\, 12, 13* 

Lecture VIL— "The Gift of the Holy Ghost." 173 

Text. — S. John vii., 39* 



Appendix. 



20; 



GOD INCARNATE. 



LECTURE I. 

THE CREATOR. 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All 
things were made by Him ; and without Him was not anything made 
that was made. In Him was life ; and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended it 
not." — St. John i : 1-5. 

We read that Simplicianus, Bishop of Milan, told 
St. Augustine the saying of a heathen philosopher, 
that the exordium of St. John's Gospel ought to be 
written up in letters of gold in the most conspicuous 
place of Christian churches. It would be well if we 
would even now follow out the suggestion of the 
Platonist philosopher. Still better would it be if 
each Christian would bear the words written on 
his heart and mind ; not only to be retained in the 
memory, but pondered over and devoutly meditated 
upon. Without doubt the words have been found 
very dear to many. Of old many had them en- 
grossed and illuminated as beautifully as possible 
upon parchment, and then wore them, as the Jews 
1 



2 THE CREATOR. 

of old wore the words of Deuteronomy in their 
phylacteries. But as true and real devotion waned, 
this habit degenerated into a superstition, so that 
we read it was condemned more than once. 

Still, the inimitable grandeur of the words com- 
pelled attention, and in one way or another special 
reverence was paid to them. In some churches the 
passage was said at the end of the Service for the 
Baptism of Infants, and again after Communicating 
the dying, and after Extreme Unction. We are told 
that in the comparative scarcity of manuscripts, 
and it may be in the equal scarcity of power to read 
them, the laity would sometimes stop the priest in 
his passage to the vestry, after the celebration of the 
Holy Communion, and ask him to recite to them 
this Gospel. This, it is said, led to the custom of 
reciting it after the service, whether it were specially 
asked for or not. Then, as the piety which had de- 
manded the recitation declined, it was said by the 
priest for .himself ; voluntarily at first, and then in 
some parts by special direction of ordinary author- 
ity. It is therefore often found in manuscripts, 
written at the end of the service.* 

It would be well if we could habituate ourselves to 
repeat the words continually and meditate upon 
them. For the}' are as much needed now as in St. 
John's days. The errors that he combated are con- 
tinually reappearing. Well-meaning persons, from 
a mistaken sentimental piety, in popular story books, 
present an erroneous view of our blessed Lord's life 
and character, which is as much to be guarded 

* See Appendix A. 



THE CREATOR. 3 

against as open heresy. Indeed, more so, for it is 
more insidious, and therefore more dangerous. More 
and more the responsibility is thrown upon parents 
to guard their children from error. More and more, 
therefore, should they preoccupy their minds with 
the truth about our Lord ; and perhaps no more 
certain method could be adopted than to build up 
the child's mind on a firm hold of the truth as pre- 
sented in St. John's writings. Of these it has been 
said, with truth, that therein " agnus ambulat, 
elephas natat." The simple child can walk at large, 
the man of ponderous learning is soon out of his depth. 

It is, no doubt, one of the reasons that so many 
attacks have been concentrated on St. John's Gospel, 
that it contains the antidote to most modern errors. 
Indeed, we might almost say that all error in the 
Christian religion might be corrected from his writ- 
ings. For no writings so forcibly and so plainly in- 
sist upon the truth of the Incarnation ; and almost 
all, if, indeed, not all, error in Christian doctrine is 
nearly connected with erroneous or faulty views of 
the fundamental doctrine of the Incarnation. Hence, 
if such views are to thrive, men must first of all get 
rid of St. John's writings as being the great prophy- 
lactic against error. But this is no easy task, and 
the attacks have but revealed the strength of the 
position assailed. 

We begin, then, as St. John did, from God Him- 
self. This was ever the plan of the English Church. 
When her Canons were codified commencement was 
made from the doctrine about God.* When, in the 

* E.g., Lyndewode's " Provinciate." 



4 THE CREATOR. 

sixteenth century, she put out articles about matters 
of controversy at the time, she took care to place in 
the very forefront the Articles of the Catholic Faith.* 
Herein at once is seen her difference from other re- 
forming bodies, Scotch or Continental ; for all these, 
with scarce an exception, begin their " Confessions of 
faith" with some articles of controversial matter, f 

The English folk, too, were in the habit of com- 
mencing their letters with the sacred name ; as we 
read in Shakespeare, " Emmanuel is what they write 
at the top of letters ;" $ and in the pious letters be- 
tween Dr. Basire and his wife, some eighty years 
later, each begins with the sacred monogram or 
name. 

We begin, then, as St. John began, with a declara- 
tion of the Eternal Deity of Him Who in time 
became Incarnate and was made man. 

Our blessed Lord set forth, in His great High- 
Priestly prayer at the mysterious Last Supper, the 
two fundamental doctrines of our Faith : " This is 
life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent."§ Here are 
the two great cardinal doctrines of Christianity, 
which are recapitulated in the quaint language of 
our poet-theologian George Herbert : 

" Thou hast but two rare cabinets full of treasure, 
The Trinity and Incarnation ; 
Thou hast unlocked them both, 
And made them jewels to betroth 
The work of Thy Creation 
Unto Thyself in everlasting pleasure. 

* The XXXIX Articles of 1562. f See Appendix B. 

X Second Part of Henry VI., act. iv. sc. 2. § St. John 17 : 3. 



THE CREATOR. 5 

" The statelier cabinet is the Trinity, 

Whose sparkling light access denies ; 
Therefore Thou dost not show 
This fully to us, till death blow 
The dust into our eyes ; 
For by that powder Thou dost make us see. 

" But all Thy sweets are packed up in the other ; 
Thy mercies thither flock and flow, 
That as the first affrights, 
This may allure us with delights, 
Because this box we know, 
For we have all of us just such another." 

Let us, then, to begin with, feel well assured of 
this, that there is no theory which satisfies all de- 
mands of human reason as does the Christian teach- 
ing ; for I regard it more than theory. It may be 
true, nay, it is true, that reason cannot reveal God 
to man ; man " cannot by searching find out God ;" 
he remains groping about like one in the dark or 
like a blind man in unfamiliar surroundings until the 
true Light comes to him. Men " seek the Lord, if 
haply they may feel after Him and find Him, though 
He is not far from every one of us." * For, indeed, 
" the invisible things of Him from the creation of 
the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even His eternal power and 
Godhead, so that they are without excuse." f Rea- 
son leads us to the door of belief ; reason welcomes 
us again after we have entered ; but reason does not 
open the door or force us to enter. That is left for 
faith. Faith is, as it were, the electric spark which 
will enable us to combine and account for all phe- 

* Acts 17 : 27. f Romans 1 : 20. 



6 THE CREATOR. 

nomena around us, and also to distinguish each color 
in its separate truth when the whirl of thought has 
blended them all into one. This is what St. John 
says : " We know that the Son of God is come, and 
hath given us an understanding, that we may know 
Him that is true." * The word here rendered " un- 
derstanding" is the power of reasoning aright, the 
process by which reason arrives at a conclusion. 
" That with which the Son of God Incarnate has en- 
dowed believers is a power of understanding, of in- 
terpreting, of following out to their right issues the 
complex facts of life, and the end of the gift is that 
they may know, not by one decisive act, but by a 
continuous and progressive apprehension, Him that 
is true. Thus the object of knowledge is not ab- 
stract but personal ; not the truth, but Him of 
Whom all that is true is a partial revelation. It is 
evident that the fact of the Incarnation vitally wel- 
comed carries with it the power of believing in and 
seeing, little by little, the Divine purposes of life 
under the perplexing riddles of phenomena." f 

This is well illustrated in the utterances of those 
who, outside the pale of Christianity, have been led 
up to the very door by their powers of reasoning. 
So much so that Christians marvel that they do not 
enter the door that is open before them. 

No doubt there are difficulties in the way of belief. 
There must be for the sake of the faithful. There 
would be no room for faith if there were no room 
for doubt. But the difficulties which unbelief pro- 

* i St. John 5 : 20, with Dr. Westcott's commentary upon the 
passage, 
f Dr. Westcott in loc> 



THE CREATOR. 7 

duces are by far the greater, and there is no door of 
reverent thought which true Christianity cannot un- 
lock, while unbelief often helps to double-lock them 
and bar them up effectually. 

Instinct and reason, as well as revelation, testify 
to the Unity of God. The early Christians in their 
arguments with the heathen make this claim very 
powerfully. They claim that whenever a man is 
deeply stirred, and is therefore less likely to be un- 
real and on his guard, he appeals to God. Tertul- 
lian, Minucius Felix, and St. Cyprian all use the 
same argument. " In the midst of the statues and 
images oi the false gods (cries Tertullian*), when you 
are deeply moved, you appeal not to them, but to 
God. Wonderful testimony to the truth ! (he ex- 
claims) the soul is by nature Christian" — that is, so 
far as the Unity of God is concerned. " I hear the 
common people, when they lift up their hands to 
Heaven, say nothing else than, O God, and God is 
great, and God is true, and if God permit. Is this 
the natural utterance of the vulgar, or is it the prayer 
of a confessing Christian ? Those who speak of 
Jupiter as the chief are mistaken in the name, but 
they are in agreement about the Oneness of the 
power." f And St. Cyprian argues: ''We fre- 
quently hear it said, O God, and God sees, and I 
commend to God, and God give you, and if God 
will ; it is, then, the height of sinfulness to refuse to 
acknowledge Him, Whom you cannot but know." J 



* Tertullian, " De Testimonio Animae," § 2 ; Apolog., § 17. 

f Minucius Felix, " Octavius," § 18. 

\ St. Cyprian, De Idol. Van. Opera. Paris, 1726, p. 227. See also 



8 THE CREATOR. 

They argued from the natural instinct of man ; the 
argument from reason has also been urged from the 
first. It was this which made St. Paul tell the Ro- 
mans that the heathen were without excuse, since 
there is an objective Epiphany of God to man, and 
a subjective, receptive capacity on man's part to un- 
derstand the Epiphany. " For the invisible things 
of God, His eternal power and divinity, from the 
creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are made." This, too, is 
practically acknowledged by modern philosophers 
who are outside the Christian flock. One such (Mr. 
Herbert Spencer) has said that " the objects and 
actions surrounding us, not less than the phenomena 
of our consciousness, compel us to ask a cause. In 
our search we discover no resting-place until we 
arrive at the hypothesis of a First Cause. We have 
no alternative but to regard this as infinite and abso- 
lute." * Here, however, we must introduce a warn- 
ing, for to some minds " the idea of absolute, infinite 
being seems to preclude relations, to be incompati- 
ble with creation in space and time. This difficulty 
will, I think, so far as it is not inherent in our nature, 
be found to disappear if we remember that the 
Divine Being is not Infinite in the sense of being- 
unlimited, unconditioned, but in the sense of not 
being limited or conditioned by anvthing other than 



Professor Rawlinson's " Early Pievalence of Monotheistic Belief," 
R. T. S., and Mr. Renouf, Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of 
Egypt. 

* Quoted by Canon McColl, " Christianity in Relation to Science 
and Morals," p. 10. 



THE CREATOR. 9 

Himself. God is not unconditioned, but self-condi- 
tioned, self-limited."* 

Each man is certain that he exists ; he knows that 
he does not exist of himself, but of some other being, 
who again, it may be, exists of some other, until we 
come to a first Being, Who is of Himself. In such 
an argument there can be no infinity, for a posterior 
cause cannot be granted unless a prior, and ulti- 
mately, a first be granted also.f 

Moreover, we cannot conceive of there being 
more than one, for then there would be antagonism, 
which must issue in the sole pre-eminence of one. 
Or if not, neither could be God, for neither would 
be perfect ; the perfection of one being by so much 
the defect of the other. 

Then, again, man considered as a reasoning being 
has two great tendencies. One is dependence upon 
the unseen. In the lower animals we find proof that 
instinct warns them against real dangers external to 
themselves, and not against such as are imaginary and 
within themselves. Is man alone of animals to be 
said to depend upon an unreal phantom ? 

The other tendency of man is to aim at an ideal 
excellence which is not in himself, which he is con- 
stantly pursuing but never attaining. This is not 
merely an intellectual excellence, but a moral excel- 
lence. This universal longing would imply the ex- 
istence of something perfect in beauty, in knowledge, 
in power, in holiness, without which the yearning 
cannot be satisfied. Reason, then, would lead us to 

* " The Christian Doctrine of the Godhead," by Rev. J. W. Hicks, 
p. 4. 

f Bishop Forbes on the Articles, vol. i., p. 2. 



IO THE CREATOR. 

believe that there is One Supreme Being absolutely 
perfect in all respects. 

But without question this great truth which com- 
mends itself to instinct and reason takes a much 
firmer hold on the mind of man when explicitly de- 
clared by Revelation. The philosopher John Stuart 
Mill (who was brought up as an Atheist from his 
earliest childhood) has acknowledged that there 
seemed to him no antecedent improbability in a 
revelation from a Supreme Being. We may indeed 
believe that there is a very great probability in such 
a message being sent. If instinct and reason lead us 
to believe in a First Cause, it would be hard to con- 
ceive of Him as having so little regard for that 
which He had called into being as not to send a 
message to it. In the Revelation which we claim to 
have, which we have from God, there is nothing so 
much insisted on as the unity of God. This is the 
one great strain of the Old Testament. The text 
that all faithful Jews were bound to recite twice a 
day at least, began, " Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy 
God is one Lord." It was the continual refrain of 
the argument against the idols and polytheism of the 
Assyrian heathen, as given by Isaiah, " Is there any 
God beside Me ? Yea, there is no God, I know not 
any." He is one and unchangeable, " with Whom 
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." 

The same philosopher before quoted (Mr. Herbert 
Spencer) says again : " It is absolutely certain that 
we are in the presence of an infinite, eternal energy, 
from which all things proceed ;" and yet there was 
wanting to him the spark of faith (it may be) to en- 
able him to go one step further. For energy with- 



THE CREATOR. II 

out mind and will to guide it must be destructive 
and not orderly. This we are taught each day of 
our lives. It is a daily lesson which we should do 
well to con and apply. Energy is a good servant, 
but a bad master. What are the greatest forces in 
nature known to us ? May we not say steam, gas, 
electricity ? The mind and will of man imprison 
them and make them his useful slaves. If they are 
undirected they are destructive. Steam uncon- 
trolled or misdirected will destroy life and rend 
iron. When tamed and guided, it is a galley-slave 
of the greatest service. I have seen a huge traction 
engine winding its way through the tortuous and 
narrow streets of Old London, guided by one man 
at a small wheel. Gas in sudden formation or ex- 
plosion is most destructive ; but it is enclosed to 
give us light and to strike down our venison. Elec- 
tricity left to itself acts blindly and destructively ; but 
the mind and will of man lay hold of it, imprison 
it, store it up, and light his house and streets with 
it, make it his beast of burden, and compel it to 
carry his messages to the ends of the earth. All this 
teaches us, if we have eyes to see, and ears to hear, 
and hearts to understand, that the presence of law 
and order in connection with energy implies the 
presence of mind and will to maintain the same. 
The presence of law and order in creation around 
us necessitates the presence of mind and will acting 
with that energy, the presence of which Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer says is absolutely certain. 

Now mind and will imply personality.* Then 

* See Appendix C, where another argument in favor of personality 
of the First Cause is given. 



12 THE CREATOR. 

advancing one step further, we would say, as has 
been maintained, that personality implies social 
capacities ;* for we naturally associate capacity for 
social intercourse with our idea of person. " The 
word would be robbed of much that it now connotes 
if we were to apply it to a being incapable of receiv- 
ing or imparting either thought or feeling." This 
will lead us one step further to be assured that in a 
Perfect Being social capacities imply the means of 
gratifying them. The crowning revelation, there- 
fore, is that " God is Love." 

Now we cannot conceive of love without an ob- 
ject. Love would not then be love, it would only 
be the capacity for love. Love would not be love 
without exercise. We therefore could not conceive 
that God is love if He were a solitary Unit, to speak 
with deepest reverence. " In an age which is be- 
coming metaphysical in spite of itself and its ante- 
cedents, men are driven to the conviction that God 
cannot be what religion requires Him to be — a self- 
conscious Being — and, at the same time, what the 
Unitarian makes Him — an undifferentiated Unit, an 
absolute One." f 

Hence, we may say once more that reason is Chris- 
tian in demanding that God be eternally a Father, 
eternally produced toward Himself, with a Son 
Who is " the Brightness of His glory and the ex- 
press Image of His Person." 

The heathen Greeks, two thousand years ago, had 
arrived at what some regard now as a new discovery, 
that " an absolute unit is unthinkable ;" but Chris- 

* See McColl, " Christianity in Relation to Science," p. 13. 
f Aubrey Moore, " Science and the Faith," p. 160. 



THE CREATOR. 1 3 

tianity was the first to solve the problem.* It was 
not that they set out to solve it, but starting with 
the historic fact of the Resurrection, with the doc- 
trinal truth of the Deity of Him Who rose again, 
they found to hand an answer to the difficulties 
which had been felt by unilluminated reason. " The 
Fathers do not treat the doctrine of the Trinity in 
Unity merely as a revealed mystery, still less as 
something which complicates the simple teaching of 
Monotheism, but as the condition of rationally hold- 
ing the Unity of God." 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. ' ' The Word 
was with God. The original expression denotes 
activity toward — "The Word was toward God." 
It implies distinction of person. Hence we may not 
suppose that God is a Father only in name, in so far 
as He is the Prime Origin of all ; that the titles 
" Father, Son, Spirit" imply no more than various 
attitudes or relations of one and the same Person 
toward the creation He called into existence. So 
false an idea as this (invented by Sabellius to explain 
away the truth) would imply that God was not a 
Father until the world or universe was called into 
being ; that therefore there was no Word or Son 
previous to creation. But, saith the apostle, not 
only was the Word in the beginning, before the 
creature was, but " in the beginning with, or toward, 
God ;" the Sabellian notion being thus excluded. 
The Word is not only, as it were, outward, but (to 
speak with deepest awe and reverence) eternally in- 

* See Appendix D. 



14 THE CREATOR. 

ward toward God. His Face ever toward the Face 
of His Eternal Father. And lest man should con- 
ceive of Him as of one outside the Divine Life, ol 
lower nature than that of Him Who is the Father, 
the apostle adds at once, " and the Word was God." 

Here for one moment we would leave the text, to 
remind ourselves that the doctrine of the Eternal 
Spirit as a Bond between the two Persons of the 
Father and the Son is fully in accordance with 
Reason, which requires that He should be at once a 
Person, and equal with both Father and Son, else 
He would not perfectly interpret the One to the 
Other. Therefore another apostle, St. Paul, saith, 
" The Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep 
things of God. For who knoweth the things cf a 
man save the spirit of man which is in him ? So the 
things of God none hath known, save the Spirit of 
God." The Holy Spirit of God (the apostle seems 
to say under inspiration) is the ultimate conscious- 
ness of God, whereby He knows Himself. None 
but God could search the depths of God. His 
search alone would not be baffled. As St. Augus- 
tine points out, He is, as it were, the Love whereby 
the Father and the Son are united ; hence, some have 
spoken of Him with deepest reverence, be it said, 
as " Osculum Patris et Filii. " 

Thus in the Oneness of God there exists a Trinity 
of Persons. In the Old Testament, though the One- 
ness was more insisted upon, yet there are words 
and passages which we can see now contained the 
teaching of Plurality of Persons. The utterance, 
" Let US make man in Our image," is at once fol- 
lowed by the words, " so God made man in His 



THE CREATOR. I 5 

own image." Then, again, " Man is become as one 
of US," " let US go down ;"* all imply plurality of 
equal Persons. While, again, the blessing which is 
" putting God's Name upon" the people is so clear 
a teaching of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, 
that it is ready at once to pass into what is called 
the Apostolic blessing. For in the set form of bene- 
diction given by God to Moses, the great incom- 
municable Name of God is uttered three times, as 
the small capitals in the Bible of the English Church 
will remind us, " The Lord bless thee, and keep 
thee ; the Lord make His Face to shine upon thee, 
and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up His 
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." f If 
we take the form and order in which the Christian 
blessing occurs in the Liturgy of St. James (so called), 
we shall at once see that it is the Christian version of 
the ancient Hebrew benediction recited to Moses, 
" The love of the Lord and Father, the grace of the 
Lord and Son, the fellowship and gift of the Holy 
Ghost be with us all." It is the Love of God the 
Father that blesses and keeps ; the glory of God seen 
in the Face of His Son Jesus Christ is gracious (for 
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ) ; the fellow- 
ship of the Holy Ghost brings the communion of 
peace, the third fruit of the Spirit. 

The Trinity of Persons was not so clearly revealed 
in the Old Testament ; partly, it may be, because 
there was ever present the error of polytheism and 
idolatry, which was very seductive ; but mainly 
because it was not necessary nor indeed easy of 

* Genesis I : 26, 27 ; 3 : 22 ; 11 : 7. f Numbers 6 : 23, 24, 25. 



1 6 THE CREATOR. 

comprehension until the Incarnation of God the 
Son. Now it is different. St. John, as we have 
seen, tells us, ' ' We know that the Son of God is come, 
and hath given us an understanding ; that we may 
know Him that is true ; and we are in Him that is 
true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true 
God and Eternal life." 

When we have once accepted the great funda- 
mental doctrine of the Trinity we are prepared to 
receive the doctrine of Creation. For the mystery 
of Creation is only excelled by the mystery of the 
Nature of God. For even the deep mystery of the 
Incarnation seems somewhat less (if possible) than 
the mystery of Creation. For (with reverence be 
it said) the mystery of the Union of the Creator with 
the existing creature would seem less than the 
mystery of calling the creature into existence. St. 
John then goes on, " All things were made by Him, 
and apart from Him was not anything made that 
was made." God is no sterile and motionless unit. 
The Eternal Son is " the beginning of the Creation 
of God ;" not as being Himself the first created, but 
as being the principle on which creation depend. * 

Here, however, early errors would lead us to dis- 
tinguish between the creative word spoken and the 
Creator Word speaking. St. Clement, of Alexan- 
dria, is very earnest in warning against any suppo- 
sition that the Word by Whom all things were made 
was that of the Psalmist, " He spake the Word, and 
they were made ;" since He is the Word that speaks 
the creative utterance. 

* See Appendix F. 



THE CREATOR. IJ 

God the Son, God the Word, is the Mediator 
whereby God creates. This was depicted of old in 
the beautiful language of the eighth chapter of the 
Book of Proverbs, " The Lord possessed Me in the 
beginning of His way. . . I was set up from everlast- 
ing, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 
When there were no depths, I was brought forth ; 
when there were no fountains abounding with water. 
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills 
was I brought forth ; while as yet He had not made 
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the 
dust of the world." Thus far before the fiat of crea- 
tion had gone forth, while as yet it only existed in the 
eternal purpose of God. But the record goes on : 
' When He prepared the Heavens, I was there ; 
when He set a circle on the face of the deep ; when 
He established the clouds above ; when He strength- 
ened the fountains of the deep ; when He gave 
the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass 
His commandment ; when He appointed the founda- 
tions of the earth ; then I was by Him, as One 
brought up with Him ; and I was daily His delight, 
rejoicing always before Him ; rejoicing in the habi- 
table parts of His earth ; and My delights were with 
the sons of men." 

That which here is adumbrated in poetic beauty 
is asserted continually in the New Testament. The 
Father indeed is the Prime Source and Origin of all 
created being, as He is of the Godhead ; but the 
Son is the Mediatorial Agent of creation. " By 
Him (or rather, through Him) all things, regarded 
severally (as the Greek intimates), were made." 
11 In Him were all things (regarded collectively, the 



1 8 THE CREATOR. 

universe) created." These two statements of two 
Apostles supplement each the other. It was (as the 
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews again says) 
4 ' by the Son that God made the worlds." " There 
is One Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom are all 
things, and we through Him." Then with these 
statements we can understand the inspired sayings 
of the psalms. " By the Word of the Lord were 
the Heavens made." " He by His excellent Wis- 
dom made the Heavens." 

But God the Son is not only the Mediator in crea- 
tion, He is also the Revealer in illumination. ' That 
which hath been made in Him is Life ; and the life 
was the light of men," as a class, not only as of indi- 
viduals. St. Clement, of Alexandria, pointed out 
seventeen hundred years ago that in all philosophy, 
in all wisdom of men, there is seen some truth, even 
in the wildest flights of fancy among the heathen ; 
but every sparkle of truth is a reflection from the 
One true Light that lighteth every man coming into 
the world. As Archbishop Theophylact said many 
years after, '* He saith not the light of the Jews 
only, but of all men ; for all of us in so far as we 
have received intellect and reason from that Word 
which created us are said to be illuminated by 
Him."* When, therefore, the heathen acknowl- 
edged, " We are His offspring," it was a sparkle of 
truth which could be claimed as a witness to Him 
Who is the Truth. 

But He Who had revealed truth in parts, as men 
were able to bear it, " Who in many portions and 
in many methods had spoken of old," He in these 

* Theophylact in lot., Opera Venetiis, 1754, p. 510. 



THE CREATOR. 19 

last days, the latter times, the last dispensation, has 
come Himself, the Perfect Revealer, to mankind and 
the creation at large. For ' ' the Word was made 
Flesh, and dwelt among us, tabernacled in our na- 
ture, ' ' and is now the intimate means of union, the one 
complete Mediator between God and His creation. 

Here, then, I would humbly make my own the 
words of a very great man. " Dangerous it were 
for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the 
doings of the Most High, Whom although to know 
be life and joy to make mention of His Name, yet 
our soundest knowledge is to know that we know 
Him not as indeed He is, neither can know Him ; 
and our safest eloquence concerning Him is our 
silence, when we confess without confession that 
His glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our 
capacity and reach. He is above and we upon earth ; 
therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and 
few." * Ah, brethren, our subject is vast and un- 
fathomable ! Let us, His unworthy creatures, on 
whom He has lavished the fulness of His boundless 
love, not be of those who receive Him not. Let us 
welcome Him with our whole nature, body, soul, 
and spirit. He is now drawing us with the cords of 
a man, for He is man as we are. " Draw us (cry 
the elect), we will run after Thee !" f The nearer 
the iron is to the magnet the more it hastens to meet 
and join it. The nearer we approach (however un- 
worthily) to God, the greater the attraction. Let 
us yield ourselves to Him, the Incarnate Saviour, 
and He will in no wise cast us out. 

* Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," Book I., chap, ii., § 2. 
f Canticles 1 : 4. 



LECTURE II. 

[ THE CREATURE. 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All 
things were made by Him ; and without Him was not anything made 
that was made. In Him was life ; and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended 
it not."— St. John i : 1-5. 

Next to the mystery of the Godhead is the mys- 
tery of Creation. Here, again, reason, given to us 
by God, may help us somewhat on the way, though 
not very far. Scientific investigators have argued 
from what they call " degradation of energy," that 
the universe will come to an end ; and from this they 
have argued that that which has an end must have 
had a beginning ; that therefore the universe must 
have had a beginning. The argument may be profit- 
able to some, but it does not help a believer very 
much. It may be a step in the right direction, and 
as such we would welcome it. But science cannot 
tell us about the act of creation, for still the question 
would be asked, " Where wast thou when I laid the 
foundations of the earth ?" 

But, as a rule, scientific men are content to ac- 
knowledge that of the beginning of the universe they 
know nothing at all. It is the same with the ques- 
tion of life. Some years ago a friend of mine in Old 



THE CREATURE. 21 

London asked a learned scientific lecturer* a ques- 
tion which baffled him. Lectures had been given to 
workingmen, and the lecturer kindly invited ques- 
tions from his audience, professing himself willing 
to answer them as well as he could. Now my friend, 
a coach painter, had been attending the lectures with 
great interest. He had read himself into unbelief, 
and by God's grace had recovered faith, but still he 
loved all scientific inquiry, as a Christian may and 
should. In answer, then, to the invitation of the 
lecturer my friend wrote the following : " You have 
most learnedly told us about matter apart from life, 
and matter in connection with life ; will you kindly 
tell us what life is apart from matter?" It was a 
pertinent and a logical question, but no answer could 
be given by science. The lecturer commenced his 
next lecture by saying that one of his audience had 
asked him a question which he must have known 
could not be answered, and that was all. When one 
of the great teachers of science, President of the 
British Association, proposed the theory that the 
first germ of life was brought to this planet by a 
fragment of an exploded world, he made a sugges- 
tion which would have been laughed to scorn if 
made by a less eminent man ; for it would not help 
us at all to find out how life commenced on the 
exploded globe. 

But where science must fail, here revelation steps 
in. There seems good reason to think that the 
words in the text should run thus, " That which 
hath been made was life in Him." A difficult phrase, 

* If my memory is right, the lecturer was Professor Huxley. 



22 THE CREATURE. 

but full of beautiful meaning. The thought seems to 
be carried back far beyond the time when creation 
became a fact, and was only a purpose or idea pres- 
ent to the mind of the Creator. There is the double 
aspect — one in relation to man, the other in relation 
to God. In relation to man, there are the present 
phenomena, " that which hath been made ;" in rela- 
tion to God, " they were." There is a similar con- 
trast in the Book of Revelation where the hymn of 
the four and twenty elders expresses the same double 
aspect : " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive 
glory, and honor, and power ; for Thou hast created 
all things, and for Thy pleasure they were, and were 
created." We may say, therefore, that while it is 
true that the creature is not eternal (it would not be 
a creature if it were), yet we cannot separate it from 
the eternal purpose of the Divine mind. While it is 
true that at the first beat of time the creature sprang 
into existence, and so was made or created, yet we 
believe that its existence was eternally present to 
the mind of God " That which hath been made 
was life in Him/' 

God the Son was the Creative Agent of God. 
" That which [in time] hath been made was [in eter- 
nity] life in Him." It was failure to see this great 
truth, which was one of the difficulties in the way 
of the Arians, or which they alleged as a reason for 
thinking that the Divine Son was Himself a Crea- 
ture. They argued that creatures as such were too 
feeble to endure the force of the Father's creating 
power. Therefore a Mediator was necessary to 
break the impact. But St. Athanasius* rightly 

* Orat. II., c. Aiianos, § 26 ; Opera Patavii, 1777, Tom. i., p. 390. 



THE CREATURE. 23 

ridiculed this, arguing that if the force were indeed 
so great that no creature could endure it, then if the 
Son were a creature, He could not be created by 
the Father Himself, and another Mediator would be 
necessary, and so on ad infinitum. Their argument 
was, indeed, as great a folly as the suggestion of life 
travelling hitherward on an aerolite speeding from 
an explosion. The Son Himself is the One Mediator 
between God and the Creature, which from all eter- 
nity " was life in Him/* To the Christian there can 
be no antagonism between Christianity and Science. 
When Science has established a fact, the Christian 
can see in it the act of God ; in the meantime the 
Christian may, indeed, be on the mountain-top of 
faith, lifting up hands and eyes to Heaven, in sure 
and certain hope that the Israel of God will, nay, 
must ultimately prevail while Amalek fights below. 
If the Book of Science be true, or rather be inter- 
preted aright, it will be found to agree with other 
books of God, when interpreted aright. Professor 
Owen spoke well when, after having lectured on 
the lesson to be learned from a striking geological 
specimen which he held in his hand, he could say 
solemnly, " The Word of God written by the finger 
of God on tables of stone." Where for a time there 
seems to be antagonism, the error is really in the 
interpreter, whether of the facts of nature, on the 
one hand, or the Bible, on the other. For we must 
not take for granted that the popular or commonly 
received interpretation is always and necessarily the 
true, or only true meaning of the fact or the pas- 
sage. There are unquestionably large tracts of 
Truth still to be discovered, Natural and Revealed ; 



24 THE CREATURE. 

and the truth discovered in Nature by Science will 
shed much light on some difficult passage of Scrip- 
ture. When the law of gravitation was discovered 
it was seen to throw marvellous light on the saying 
of holy Job, "He hangeth the earth upon nothing." 

The creature, then, was in the eternal purpose of 
God, and yet it was not developed fully all at once. 
We seem to read that before the visible universe 
was created there was called into being a veritable 
host of creatures, whom man cannot see until his 
spiritual perception has been cleared and trained 
for the purpose. Holy Scripture implies that these 
glorious beings were called into existence before the 
visible, tangible, material creation. While, perhaps, 
we may not ascribe to poetry the solid character of 
historic narration, yet poetry would be meaningless 
without some phenomenal groundwork. It is im- 
possible to paint a cloud, and if it be illuminated by 
reflected light, the colors of that light must have had 
an unquestionable existence. There is much, then, 
to be learned from the passage in Job where we are 
told that the angels hymned the creative act of call- 
ing the material universe into existence. ' Where- 
upon are the foundations of the earth fastened ? or 
Who hath laid the corner-stone thereof, when the 
morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God 
shouted for joy ?' ' * 

It is quite true that many have thought that the 
angels were created within the six days of creation 
in Genesis, and the rabbis have gone a step further, 
and asserted that they were created on the fifth day. 

* Job 38 : 7. 



THE CREATURE. 25 

They came to this conclusion from observing- that a 
certain Hebrew form occurs twice only in the Old 
Testament, once in Genesis 1 : 20, "fowl that may 
fly," and once in Isaiah 6 : 2, " with twain he did 
fly." This, they say, shows that the angelic beings 
seen by Isaiah were created at the same time as the 
winged fowl. But Scripture rather points to their 
having preceded the creation of the world of matter, 
but by what interval we know not. We may, per- 
haps, see a record of their creation in the first words 
of Genesis, " In the beginning God created the 
heavens ;" for Heaven is their " local habitation." 

Here, too, curiously enough, some scientific men 
have come to the same conclusion. It has been 
argued that the present maintenance of the seen uni- 
verse could not abide without the continual activity 
and interference of an unseen universe to keep order, 
if we may say so. If there is any foundation for 
this, it would argue that the existence of the unseen 
agency would precede the seen universe. 

Attention must be drawn to a distinction between 
the living agents of the invisible world and those of 
the material creation. Of the angels, we know that 
"they neither marry nor are given in marriage." 
There seems to have been uttered over them no 
benediction of multiplying. It has been thought, 
therefore, that their creation involved a certain 
definite number of individuals, in full adult com- 
pleteness and perfection, each individual angel 
being called into existence by a separate creative 
act of Almighty God. No one angel receives from 
another any portion of his being ; each was created 
separate, distinct, and perfect in himself. So that 



26 THE CREATURE. 

from the moment of his creation each had a being 
distinct and independent of all save his Creator. 
Each had eternal youth. Therefore, when one is de- 
scribed in Scripture as appearing to man, in order 
to meet our comprehension, the angel is spoken of 
as a young man. Hence, too, angels are called sons 
of God, as Adam is by St. Luke, because each one 
owes his existence to God alone. 

There is, then, no common angelic nature. The 
nature of each is peculiar to himself, and is derived 
neither from any save God Himself, nor to any other 
afterward. Nor need we be deterred from this 
thought by the text in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
" He took not on Him the nature of angels." * For 
there in our Bibles, if they are properly printed, we 
shall see at once that the word nature is not in the 
original, because of the variation in printing. It is 
" Of angels He took not hold." Indeed, from this 
might be argued that the passage is in favor of the 
opinion here expressed, for the word " angels" is in 
the plural. The Epistle to the Hebrews was written 
in a style of Greek which had much affinity to 
Hebrew idiom. One Hebrew peculiarity was that 
when the writer did not care to particularize any 
one of several similar things, the word was put in 
the plural. Thus when Jephthah died, the historian 
did not care to mention specially the exact spot of 
his entombment, and he said " he was buried in the 
cities of Gilead," f whereas the burial could not 
have been in more than one. This may account for 
the expression here, " He took not angels." There 

* Hebrews 2 : 16. f Judges 12 : 7. 



THE CREATURE. 2J 

was no common angelic nature ; there was no angelic 
reproduction, therefore had He "taken angels," 
He would have taken this or that particular angel, 
and not angelic nature. This will also account for 
the peculiarity of the expression which speaks of the 
Incarnation, " He took the seed of Abraham ;" He 
took the participation of man's nature from its very 
commencement. 

Of each angel, then, we may believe there is a 
separate nature, similar to, but not the same as 
that of his fellows. Inasmuch as they are subject to 
the laws of time and space we must think that they 
have some material form, however rare or subtle the 
quality. They are called spirits, yet we need not 
think that this excludes all idea of materialism. God 
alone is Spirit alone. Therefore the saying of our 
blessed Lord should probably be translated " God is 
Spirit,"* and not a Spirit, as if one of a class. He 
alone does not admit of circumscription, He is irnmen- 
sus, "incomprehensible" — that is, cannot be included 
in space. But the angels are circumscribed. They 
are subject to limitations of time and space. This is 
seen in the account of Gabriel bringing the answer 
to Daniel's prayer. " The man Gabriel, being 
caused to fly swiftly." " At the beginning of thy 
supplication the commandment came forth, and I 
am come."f They ascend and descend.^ Hence 
to their personal existence there must be some dis- 
tinguishing limit, some boundary, envelop, integu- 
ment, or covering, of however infinitesimal rarity, 



* St. John 4 : 24. f Daniel, 9 : 21, 23 

% Genesis 28 : 12 ; St. John 1 : 51. 



28 THE CREATURE. 

however transcendent the tenuity. In the Book of 
the Revelation we read of their appearing clothed 
in various ways, which of itself would imply this. 
Some have made merry with the Revised Version, 
which represents seven angels clothed in stone.* 
Yet if this be the true reading of the passage (which 
w r e are not affirming), there need be no reason for 
doubting the possibility any more than we can doubt 
that— which each one of us probably can vouch for — 
that each blade of tender grass is clothed in flint, in 
silex. This clothing of itself would imply a super- 
ficial limit to the body of the angel. 

Of their number we know nothing, save that 
" more than twelve legions of angels" were attend- 
ant on the will of the Incarnate Lord.f There are 
also hosts, and camps, and orders of them ; not iso- 
lated, but marshalled and orderly companies, as is 
implied by St. Paul and St. Peter. It is true that 
St. Paul adopts the names in common parlance 
among his opponents at Colossas, in order to exalt 
the Lord far above all ; but at least we know of 
Angels and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim. 

Of these blessed spirits we learn there is a double 
ministry, one toward God, one on God's behalf 
toward man. " Are they not all ministering spir- 
its ?" asks the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
— that is, ministering in the service of God, in the 
sanctuary of Heaven ? Therefore we say in the 
Eucharistic service, "With angels, and archangels 
and all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify 
Thy glorious Name." But not only so, they are 



* Revelation 15 : 6. f St. Matthew 26 : 53. 



THE CREATURE. 29 

also " sent forth to do service to them that are heirs 
of salvation. " * Hence we find that they have special 
offices in connection with man. It has been thought 
that each man has a guardian angel, and our blessed 
Lord's saying about the angels of the little children 
certainly bears out this impression. Indeed, nations 
are said to have their angels ; we read of the 
" Princes" of Greece and Persia, f while the special 
guardian of the chosen people of God is Michael, 
" who is like unto God," while Gabriel is the special 
messenger of mercy and love. 

We are, therefore, prepared to learn that around 
and about the Last Adam, the Incarnate Lord, the 
second head and recapitulation of the human race, 
the angels were continually ministering. 

With the angels, then, there can be no question of 
evolution, no selection, if there be in the ranks of 
■the blessed a survival of the fittest. 

But for the next stage in Creation there seems to 
have been introduced a different order. And here, 
as we deal with visible and tangible matter, human 
reason, given to us by God, will help us, it may be, 
to read the history, though in this case we have to 
read the history backward. But we must always 
remember that our knowledge is still in a state of 
transition, is far from complete, far from perfect ; 
and sometimes what is confidently asserted one day 
by a man of science is as confidently exploded the 
next by some further discovery. It may, therefore, 
very well happen that while there is complete har- 
mony between Scripture and the facts which have 

* Hebrews 1 : 14. f Daniel 10 : 13, 20, 21. 



30 THE CREATURE. 

been observed, yet discord may be feared or sus- 
pected, because the language is misconstrued or the 
facts misinterpreted. No one now supposes that 
Revelation is affected by the knowledge that the 
earth revolves about the sun and is not the fixed 
centre of the universe. When the verse " He hath 
made the round world so fast that it cannot be 
moved" was examined, it was found that the He- 
brew for " moved " really meant " totter," and was 
used of slipping footsteps (Psalms 17 : 5 ; 94 : 18, 
etc.). The word, therefore, accurately describes the 
equable and smooth movement of the world for 
many thousand years. 

Fourteen hundred years ago and more St. Augus- 
tine (whom Dr. Pusey called " the greatest mind in 
Christendom") saw that there was more latent under 
the bare letter of the account of the creation in Gen- 
esis than was generally acknowledged ; and, indeed, 
he has been thought to give utterance to " a view 
which, without any violence to language, we may 
call a theory of evolution." * After him the great- 
est mind in mediaeval times, St. Thomas of Aquinum, 
"if he did not adopt St. Augustine's view, at all 
events recognized it as tenable." It cannot, there- 
fore, be said that such views are inconsistent with 
Christianity. We are in no way committed by the 
Faith to the theory of what is called " special crea- 
tion," which seems to have been adopted in the 
seventeenth centur} T and to have been maintained 
since. That is, men have thought for two centuries 
and a half that plants and animals have continued as 



* Aubrey L. Moore, " Science and the Faith," p. 176. 



THE CREATURE. 3 I 

we see them from the moment of the creative fiat ; 
that no variation has since been possible. Whereas 
so close an approximation is seen in one form of 
animal life to another ; such a unity of design is re- 
vealed by comparative anatomy ; there is such power 
in man to improve plants and animals by selection of 
stock, that modern science has adopted a theory which 
is directly opposed to that of " special creation." It 
is suggested that the only way to account for the 
various phenomena, which cannot here be more than 
hinted at, is to maintain that all animal life has been 
self-developed from a very small beginning ; that 
just as now a full-grown man is gradually developed 
by growth properly nourished from a very small 
germ, so the whole race of animals have been grad- 
ually developed from a similar nucleus. This is 
called " Evolution." 

There are unquestionably difficulties in the way, 
which may be cleared up or not. It is true that 
man by careful selection may improve plants and 
animals and introduce such new varieties that man 
has been called in a subordinate sense a creator. 
But there is this peculiarity to be observed, that 
these plants and animals left to themselves, without 
man's selection and isolation and care, in a short 
time revert to their original form and character. 
There is a reversion to type. For example, botanists 
say that the rose is not indigenous to New Bruns- 
wick, and where found growing wild it has escaped 
from cultivation. In these cases the rose is no 
longer the beauty that would take a prize, it is a 
single flower, or what we should call a dogrose. 
Pigeon fanciers have by selection and isolation pro- 



32 THE CREATURE. 

duced very many varieties of their favorite birds, 
but it is found that if all the varieties are left to their 
own " natural selection* ' in a short time their off- 
spring all revert to the one common blue rock type. 
Other instances of a similar character are well 
known, but these must suffice. 

At the same time, though there are at present 
difficulties, yet the general tendency is to accept the 
theory of Evolution as the best solvent of all the 
phenomena which present themselves. 

Then arises the question, If this theory of Evolu- 
tion be generally taken to be true in the main, is it 
contrary to the Truth of Revelation ? To this I an- 
swer at once, it cannot be ; and then, secondly, it is 
not. For where Evolution fails to account for cer- 
tain phenomena, there Revelation steps in to help 
out the record. Evolution does not profess or pre- 
tend to tell us about the prime origin of things. If 
all known forms of animal and vegetable life could 
be traced back to a protoplasmic germ or speck, or 
to primeval ' ' fire mist, ' ' Evolution can go no further ; 
it cannot tell where the protoplasm came from or 
whence the fire mist was developed. Evolution can- 
not account for the self-consciousness of man or for 
that, which cannot be denied, that man alone of ani- 
mals is found to be deliberately choosing what he 
knows to be for his hurt. In all this Revelation 
steps in and tells us what science, with its dissecting 
knife or microscope or balance, cannot discover. 

" All things were made by Him, and apart from 
Him was made not one thing." " In the beginning 
God created the Heavens and the earth." The 
Heavens were peopled with the subtle beings, the 



THE CREATURE. 33 

angels, and the material earth was also to be peopled. 
When the earth was prepared for life, lite was com- 
municated by the intervention of the Creator, as it 
would seem — that is, it would seem as if the com- 
munication of life were direct from God, a new step 
or stage in creation. 

It is true that some men of science (like Sir W. 
Thomson, who would bring life to the world from 
an exploded planet) would say,* " I am ready to 
adopt as an article of scientific faith, true through 
all space and through all time, that life proceeds 
from life, and nothing but life." But we must pro- 
test against scientific dogmatism and decline to allow 
this as an ultimate proclamation of Science. If 
Science ever can bridge over the present gulf be- 
tween inorganic and organic matter, between the 
living and the not living, we must decline to hear 
that there is a fresh contradiction discovered be- 
tween Revelation and Science. The contradiction 
may be to a previous dogma of Science, to the dog- 
matic utterance of a Drummond or a Thomson, and 
not to the simple grandeur, the glorious simplicity 
of the record of Moses. 

Holy Scripture then tells us that the world of 
matter was created by God. This Science can 
neither deny nor affirm ; it is beyond her sphere 
altogether. 

Next, Scripture tells us that life on the earth, the 
organic kingdom, the world of plants and animals, 
began by what we may reverently call the co-opera- 
tion of the created matter with the creative energy 

* Quoted in McColl, " Christianity in Relation to Science," p. 15. 
3 



34 THE CREATURE. 

of God the Creator. Science tells of the commence- 
ment of organic life, and at present fails to tell us 
anything of its origin. Scripture and Science point 
to the gradual advance toward the formation of man. 
There is an ascending scale of organism, advancing 
from general to the special, ever making more close 
approximations to man, until at length man was 
called into being, the end, the object, the climax of 
all. There is no contradiction thus far between the 
two records. 

Science demands extension of time, she points to 
the evidence of vast growth of vegetation, as seen 
in the coal measures ; she points to the tool marks 
of the glacial period, to many other signs of length- 
ened periods, and we grant it. The word " day" in 
Scripture is not confined to what we call twenty- 
four hours. If we acknowledge that " one day is 
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day," we gladly extend this to a million 
years (as we count years) or as much longer as 
Science can wish. The chief matter concerned is 
not the period, but the WORK. Both records 
would teach orderly process, orderly progress ; 
Scripture teaches the ever-present care of the Crea- 
tor. As far as this is con6erned, it is not important 
whether the work be instantaneous or gradual. The 
survey of God's work, as seen in the world around 
us now and in history, would lead us to believe 
that all God's work is gradual and, if you will, slow. 
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Im- 
patient man, whose whole life is but a moment, is 
ever in a hurry ; he " slanders the footsteps of the 
Messiah ;" he says, " Where is the promise of His 



THE CREATURE. 35 

coming?" But God's dealings are from eternity ; 
there is no evidence of suddenness about any of His 
works. Patiens quia ceternus. He works when the 
fulness of the time has come. 

It was then by the co-operation of the powers 
given to Nature, with the active energy of the Giver 
of these powers, that the organic kingdom was pro- 
duced. God said, " Let the earth bring forth,'' 
" Let the waters bring forth abundantly," " Let the 
waters be gathered together," and thus God created. 

It is no doubt a grander view of the power of the 
Creator, that a license of self development should 
be communicated to the living creatures. Of all it 
might be said, "Whose seed is in itself." Herein 
was the great distinction between this creation and 
that of the angels. They had (so we seem to be 
told) a perfect nature each one from the first ; they 
had no growth, no development, no increase. But 
over this new creation it was said, " Be fruitful and 
multiply." And over an extension of time, in a 
gradually ascending series, organic life developed 
until the time of the Creation of Man was reached. 

Indeed, we see transacted daily among us in the in- 
dividual in an abbreviated form, that which was (as 
seems probable) enacted in the history of the organic 
kingdom. Young are born into the world, and by a 
daily and hourly blessing, which would be recognized 
as creative were it not so common among us, the im- 
mature being grows. The seeds of vegetables, the 
dormant powers of vegetable life, torpid in the winter, 
put forth their living power when the spring or a 
suitable time comes, and the young rootlets assimilate 
to themselves from earth, air, and water the matter 



36 THE CREATURE. 

which the plant requires, and it grows. Day by 
day, by a miraculous act of creative power, which 
we call digestion and then think little of it, we as- 
similate such portions as we require of the dead 
matter from animal and vegetable substances which 
we take in, and we groiv or repair the waste of life. 

But when " the fulness of the time" had come and 
the earth was prepared for man, then man was 
made. 

Here, then, at once we perceive a vast difference 
in the mode of creation. Science has to recognize 
the difference, and can tell us nothing about the 
origin of it. But Scripture lays great stress on the 
matter from more points than one. 

First, there seems to be a consultation about the 
creation of man between the Persons of the God- 
head. This is but to reveal to us the transcendent 
importance of this step. " Let US make man in 
Our Image, after Our Likeness." This is the 
secret of the difference between man and the ani- 
mals. The whole process is given in an abbreviated 
form in Genesis 2:7, " The Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of lives ; and man became a 
living soul." This seems to sum up the double 
process of Evolution, so called, and the Divine Inter- 
vention. When man was formed of the dust of the 
ground from which he was taken, then God inter- 
vened as at a fresh epoch in creation and gave him 
a special and peculiar glory. " He breathed into 
His nostrils the breath of lives ;" and man had 
herein conveyed to him the intellectual capacity of 
self consciousness, whereby he became like unto his 



THE CREATURE. 37 

Creator. " So God created man in His own image, 
in the image of God created He him." 

There is also another remarkable passage, which 
seems to teach us again the immense gulf raised by 
this intervention between man and his compeers, the 
animals that went before him. " Out of the ground 
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and 
every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam 
to see what he would call them. And whatsoever 
Adam called every living creature, that was the 
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, 
and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the 
field : but for Adam there was not found a help meet for 
him." * That is to say, there was a great gulf fixed 
between the man and all his congeners who had 
prepared the way for him and had culminated in 
him as the climax of their development. They were 
all paraded before him, to point out to him and 
to his descendants the immense difference between 
man and the other animals, caused by the transcen- 
dent love and mercy of God in " breathing into his 
nostrils the breath of lives." Here has been seen 
the double gift not only of the soul and of the intel- 
lectual spirit, aye, but also, as the Christian Fathers 
have believed, the adventitious gift of the indwelling 
of the Spirit of God. Shame upon man who uses 
the excellent endowment granted him by God to 
endeavor to dishonor Him who gave it ! 

Man, therefore, by the constitution of his nature 
is a microcosm, a little world, partaking of the char- 
acter of the whole universe of created things. He 

* Genesis 2 : 19, 20. 



38 THE CREATURE. 

is the apex, the culmination of all that went before, 
and the commencement of a new epoch. In his 
body he has affinity with the lower subjects of the 
organic kingdom, the animal and the vegetable 
world, and also, together with them, with the inor- 
ganic kingdom through the dust of the earth from 
which he was taken. On the left hand, then, he 
holds on to the visible material creation ; but on the 
right he has participation in the spii'itual nature of 
the angels — "the spirit of man goeth upward."* 
He is a recapitulation of both great branches of crea- 
tion, the angelic or spiritual and the material. 

It is very important that we should recognize this, 
and the extreme importance must be seen in the 
next lecture, succeeding the present. 

But there is one startling phenomenon which Sci- 
ence must recognize, though it cannot account for it 
from its own tests and measures. It has been well 
described thus : " The history alike of moral science 
and religions bears testimony to the existence of a 
struggle, an antagonism, a disorder in human nature, 
and to a belief that this disorder is not natural to 
man, and could not have been meant by God. Side 
by side with all that Science teaches us of the evolu- 
tion of man at the first from lower forms of life, and 
all that history tells us of the progress of man since, 
in civilization and knowledge, we see the fact of sin 
casting its shadow upon human history and holding- 
man back from his full development. This is the 
fact which lies at the basis of all religions, and which 
moral systems universally recognize, though they 

* Ecclesiastes 3 : 21. 



THE CREATURE. 39 

can neither explain nor remove it. And Science has 
taught us that we must be true to facts."* Here, 
again, then, we have to look to Revelation to help us 
to the cause of this blight and hindrance. 

It pleased Almighty God that among His crea- 
tures those that were intelligent agents should for a 
while be placed upon their probation. We may 
understand this by the gift of Reason, with which 
God has endowed us. We may say that such a 
state of probation is inseparable from freedom of 
will. It has been said that either virtue or moral 
goodness is impossible, or that evil or deviation 
from virtue is possible. Moral goodness implies 
freedom of choice, which again would ordinarily 
imply the possibility of making a wrong choice. 
The creature, who by the gift of his Creator is an 
intelligent agent, must, then, have the opportunity 
of showing that his will is attuned to and in accord 
with God's will. We may say with deepest rever- 
ence that as it pleased the Creator to call into exist- 
ence beings that could give Him willing and free 
service, could reflect, however unworthily, some 
rays of that unstinted flow of love which He poured 
upon them, it was congruous with His design, nay, 
almost necessary (certainly necessary because He 
willed it should be so), that there should be a possi- 
bility of declining such service, and so of espousing 
evil, the deviation from, and opposition to God's 
will. 

It was so in the case of the angels. We know that 
many of these, of several orders or ranks, turned 

* Aubrey Moore. 



40 THE CREATURE. 

away their wills from God and became evil. One 
there was of excellent beauty and intellect, who 
seems to have headed the revolt, who is thencefor- 
ward named Satan, the enemy. St. Paul seems to 
tell us that pride was the immediate cause of his de- 
fection ; but the Lord tells us in general terms that 
" he stood not in the Truth." It is clear from this 
that he was once "in the Truth" and fell there- 
from. St. Jude tells us that " they kept not their 
first estate, but left their own habitation," and 
the prophets tell us of his fall ; " How art thou 
fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morn- 
ing !" The prophet Ezekiel, in his denunciation of 
Tyre, seems to speak of the great originator of pride. 
! Thou sealest up the sum,* full of wisdom and per- 
fect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden 
of God. . . . Thou art the anointed cherub that cov- 
ereth. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day 
thou wast created until iniquity was found in thee, 
therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the moun- 
tain of God." The Lord also, in words of compre- 
hensive reach, speaks of the actual and moral fall of 
the rebel, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
Heaven," or rather, " I was all along beholding him 
fall." In the other passage in which the Lord refers 



* Ezekiel 28 : 12. There are two renderings here, that of the Author- 
ized Version and that of the Septuagint, " the impression, or seal, of 
the likeness." St. Cyril, of Alexandria, citing the passage, says : 
" We read the words addressed to the prince of Tyre, which also we 
must be persuaded to apply to the person of the devil, Thou art the 
impression of the likeness. But he to whom this was said is found to 
have fallen from the likeness." On St. John 6 : 27, Opera, Paris, 
1638, Tom. iv., p. 304 A. 



THE CREATURE. 41 

to the chief of rebels, He says, "He is a liar, and 
the father of it ;" as if all deviation from the upright- 
ness of Truth may be traced to him as the first orig- 
inator of evil. 

When man was made he was endowed with many 
excellences and with a possibility of not dying, not 
so much in a state of absolute assured perfection, as 
in one of conditional potential perfection. The con- 
dition was obedience to God's will ; the penalty of 
disobedience was seen in the death of the animals 
about man. ' ' In the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die :" as if it were, You have the possi- 
bility of (it may be) progressive development ; if, 
however, you reject this you have the possibility of 
progressive decay and degradation ; you will be- 
come as " one of the beasts that perish." For death 
was then known as Science teaches, and if it were 
not known the threat would have been meaningless, 
the penalty unknown. 

But Satan, the enemy, who had learned to say, 
" Evil, be thou my good," was at hand to tempt and 
seduce man ; and while man was still lapped in the 
bosom of the love of his Creator the foul originator 
and instigator of sin approached, and man listened 
and fell. Sin progresses by three stages — sugges- 
tion, delight, consent. With man in Paradise sug- 
gestion came from without, wholly ; delight was 
aroused and consent followed. In mankind since 
then (with One only exception) suggestion comes 
more often from within, it may be, than from with- 
out. 

From the moment of man's sin all was changed 
for him. The sluices were opened and the flood 



42 THE CREATURE. 

came, as is well represented in the collocation of 
lessons for Sexagesima Sunday : 

" Foe of mankind ! too bold thy race. 

Thou runn'st at such a reckless pace, 
Thine own dire work thou surely wilt confound. 

'Twas but one little drop of sin 

We saw this morning enter in, 
And lo ! at eventide the world is drowned." 

In dwelling on the Bible account of the Fall of 
Man we must remember that the historical part of it 
is absolutely true, whether, with some of the faithful, 
we regard the form in which the history is told 
as an allegory or a parable. Man underwent a 
definite historical probation ; he exercised his free- 
dom of will to enslave his will to evil. 

But we must take care to pierce the letter to reach 
the spirit of Revelation, break through the outward 
covering of outward circumstances, and observe the 
moral transaction within. We must learn to appre- 
ciate the true moraj significance of the whole matter. 
Man listened to God's enemy ; misconceived God's 
love ; suspected His intentions ; finally disbelieved 
His word. Man's fall was fatal to the whole race, 
for it was the deed of their head, in whom the whole 
race was represented. From that moment sin en- 
tered the world of men, and that which science can- 
not deny, though it strives hard to ignore, has all 
along existed, a blight and hindrance, keeping man 
back from his full development. Thus " by one 
man sin entered into the world and death by sin ; 
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
sinned." 



LECTURE III. 

THE INCARNATION. 
The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. — St. John i : 14. 

Glorious mast have been the prospect to Abra- 
ham when God brought him forth abroad by night 
and bade him " Look now toward Heaven, and tell 
the stars, if thou be able to number them." * In the 
Eastern sky there are visible more stars than we see 
here. The more a man gazes the more they seem, 
and more and more become visible, until it seems 
impossible to put a pin's point at any part of the 
Heavens between two spots of light. " O Lord, 
how manifold are Thy works ; in wisdom hast Thou 
made them all !" The more we contemplate the 
works the more we marvel at the Maker thereof. 

" There is a book, who runs may read, 
Which heavenly truth imparts ; 
And all the lore its scholars need, 
Pure eyes and Christian hearts. 

" The works of God above, below, 
Within us and around, 
Are pages in that book to show 
How God Himself is found." 

But if the Book of God in nature is so glorious, 
we may almost say that His Book of Revelation is 

I* Genesis 15 : 5. 



44 THE INCARNATION. 

still more glorious — and, indeed, as we might think, 
it is of the same character in one respect. The more 
we regard it the more its wonders come out — won- 
ders which at first we could not conceive of — won- 
ders that grow thicker and thicker as we read and 
meditate. If we really pray, " Open, Thou, mine 
eyes, O Lord, that I may see the wondrous things 
of Thy law," we shall see them more and more. If 
we pray with the wisest of men, " Come, thou south 
wind, and blow upon my garden, and the spices 
thereof shall flow out," we shall more and more find 
the sweetness of God's Word, more and more realize 
the wondrous depths of that matchless Book. 

Nor need we wonder that there are others who 
cannot read as we do. The Apostle told us cen- 
turies ago why it was. " The natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are 
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned."* The 
same truth is seen in the manner in which the Voice 
was understood which came from Heaven to our 
blessed Lord in the Temple in the presence of the 
Gentile proselytes, f To the most carnally-minded 
or hard-hearted the Voice appeared mere inarticu- 
late sounds, a brutum fulmen ; "they said that it 
thundered." To others there sounded, indeed, a 
speech, an articulate sound, but they perceived not 
the meaning ; they said " an angel spake to Him." 
Those who could hear, whose hearts were prepared, 
heard and understood, and one recorded the words. 
It is as the Lord said, " Why do ye not understand 



* i Corinthians 2 : 14. f St. John 12 : 28. 



THE INCARNATION. 45 

My speech ? even because ye cannot hear My 
Word." * That is, because there was in His hearers 
such moral and spiritual deficiency that they could 
not accept the truth of His teaching, His Word — 
that is, the utterance of Reason, the outcome ot Wis- 
dom ; therefore, they could not understand the lan- 
guage in which it was uttered. On the other hand, 
when once God's voice has been made known, then 
every God-fearing and believing man hears Him 
speak in his own language. May God grant that we 
may more and more realize the great and glorious 
teaching in His Word, " comparing spiritual things 
with spiritual," that we may be more and more en- 
abled to yield to Him the loving adoration of faithful 
hearts and the willing devotion of loyal affections. 
" Lord, what love have I unto Thy law, all the day 
long is my study in it." 

In similar manner, when we study history, which 
is and must be the record of the manner in which 
-all things are " working together for good for them 
that love God," the same marvellous purpose of 
Divine power and love is seen, so that unbelievers 
have been converted by the consideration. " What 
is more intricate, multiform, and anomalous than the 
history of the different nations of the earth ! At the 
first glance it is an inextricable coil of men and ac- 
tions. At the next it appears a continual repetition, 
a rising and falling of nations, a flourishing and de- 
caying of States, a constant recurrence of the same 
events under different forms. But on closer obser- 
vation history is found to be a wondrous tissue of all 

* St. John 8 : 43. 



4-6 THE INCARNATION. 

these variegated threads, a tissue ever lengthening 
and continually advancing according to fixed moral 
laws."* As ever, " some said it thundered, others, 
an angel spake," others ** understand the Word." 

All and everything in God's Book, all point to the 
central fact of history, the focus of all God's work 
— the union of the Creator with His creature in the 
Incarnation of the Son of God, the One Mediator 
between the Creator and the creature. 

This enables us to understand the account of the 
creation of man. 

As we have seen, the Heavens, called into being by 
the will of God, were peopled with spiritual beings, 
each perfect in himself, each with his own particular 
nature, which he does not share with another. Then 
at the other extreme (if we may say so) of creation 
the material universe was summoned into existence, 
and one little corner of it, the earth on which we 
live, was gradually prepared for the reception of the 
gift of life. With the other millions of globes and 
systems we have no communication except by rays 
of light, and of these by revelation we only know 
that they are fellow-creatures with us. It the mark- 
ings on the planet Mars really show the presence of 
a vast system of canals, it may, perchance, be peopled 
by intelligent agents, who have worked out the 
problem of locomotion as our own engineers might 
have done ; but this does not affect our position. 

The moment the earth on which we live was ready 
to support life, the Divine gift of life was communi- 

* Luthardt, " Fundamental Truths of Chiistianity," Lecture III., 
see Appendix F. 



THE INCARNATION. 47 

cated to it, and by almost insensible gradations and 
variations, which seem almost infinite, the forms of 
life advance and become more sensitive, until the 
form of man is reached. Then once more there is 
an intervention of the Creator with a new gift, which 
makes man the head and king of the organic king- 
dom. He is made into* the image of God : he has 
granted to him an intellectual spirit whereby he has 
affinity to the spiritual intelligences in the world of 
angels. He recapitulates all creation, and has thus 
the character of the representative of all created 
things. In his spiritual nature he is like, and may 
hereafter become, "equal to the angels." In his 
lower nature he has affinity with all below him in the 
lower forms of life ; ay, even with inorganic matter, 
for " dust he is, and unto dust he will return." 

There is also one other point on which Revelation 
insists, and that is the unique character of the first 
man. In the one individual, Adam, was contained 
.all mankind. *With respect to Avhat Science may 
have to say about this, we need say no more than 
that though the question has been freely discussed, 
and some years ago several scientific, faithful men 
were of opinion that there were many Adams, yet 
now the tendency is to believe that the unity, which 
is being acknowledged, arises from unity of origin. 
This seems to be insisted on with earnestness in the 
Old Testament. It is emphasized by the parade of 
the animals before Adam, when their difference 
from him is shown to be so vast that not one was a 
help meet for him. Surely this would teach that 

* See Appendix G. 



48 THE INCARNATION. 

man was not wholly the result of Evolution. For if 
he were, something outside of himself would have 
been sufficiently near to him to be a help meet for 
him. The last step or stage in Evolution would 
have been so nearly akin as to have been little less 
than woman, except that the great gulf had been 
fixed by the Divine intervention, and the bestowal 
of the great and glorious gift of spiritual intelligence 
and self-consciousness had been granted to man. 

Then there was built up out of the side of Adam, 
who lay meanwhile in deep ecstasy or sleep, the 
help meet for him, Eve, the mother of all living. 

If we had only the Old Testament we should not 
know why such stress was laid on all this, but 
when we learn that the Creator has been pleased in 
His Infinite love and mercy to unite the creature to 
Himself, then " our understandings are opened, and 
we can understand in all the Scriptures the things 
concerning" that Incarnation. We can see how 
that, when Adam was made in the Image of God, he 
was also made in that Image which the Creator 
would assume "in the fulness of time." We can 
see why Adam was the unique and sole representa- 
tive of mankind ; and that all mankind without ex- 
ception was developed and derived out of him, 
because the last Adam, the Lord Incarnate, would 
be the new head into Whom anew all mankind should 
be recapitulated * and summed up in the new crea- 
tion. We can understand why man was of so com- 
plex a nature as to comprehend in himself an affinity 
to each part of creation, that when the loving Crea- 



* Ephesians I : 10. 



THE INCARNATION. 49 

tor vouchsafed to enter into Personal conjunction 
with the common nature of man, He might be at 
once in touch with all His creation. 

Here, then, the question faces us, whether the 
Personal Union of the Creator with man's nature was 
due to man's sin, that He Who alone was able, might 
become "the Repairer of the Breach"* between 
man and his God created by man's sin ; or, to speak 
humanly, was the Incarnation dependent upon the 
sin of man ? If so, indeed, we may cry out, " O Felix 
culpa," O blessed sin ! But this seems strange and 
abhorrent to our sense of what is right. Here we 
might be content to lay our hands on our mouth and 
listen to the outburst of the Apostle, " O the depth 
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of 
God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and 
His ways past finding out ! For who hath known 
the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been His coun- 
sellor ? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall 
be recompensed unto Him again ? For of Him, and 
through Him, and to Him, are all things : to Whom 
be glory forever. Amen." 

Still we may remember that intellect and reason- 
ing powers have been given to us of God, and there- 
fore if, with devout submission to Him, and with 
dependence upon His guidance and His Word, we 
endeavor to understand what we believe, it cannot 
be wrong. St. Paul himself in dealing with the 
heathen argued with them on such grounds as he 
found in common with them ; and, again, in dealing 
with the Christians at Rome, and at Corinth, he 

* Isaiah 58 : 12. 



$0 THE INCARNATION. 

argued as men might argue. Indeed, the key to all 
the mysteries of God is in the hands of a devout and 
faithful Christian. " We know that the Son of God 
is come, and hath given us an understanding, that 
we may know Him that is True ; and we are in Him 
that is True, even in His Son Jesus Christ." * As 
the Incarnate Lord "opened the understanding" of 
His earliest disciples "that they might understand 
the Scriptures," so the Apostle St. John here tells us 
that the gift is a continuous gift to all the faithful, 
opening out their understandings in a progressive 
apprehensionf of " Him that is True." Let us pray 
more and more earnestly " Open Thou mine eyes, 
O Lord, that I may see the wondrous things of Thy 
law ;" and in deep humility let us approach this 
awful subject. 

A very excellent and comprehensive history of 
Christian opinion on the particular question as to 
whether the Incarnation would have taken place if 
there had been no fall of man, has been given by 
Professor Westcott, to whose essay I would refer 
inquirers.:]: 

It may be said that there is nothing in Scripture 
which would lead us to assert that the Incarnation 
was dependent upon the fall of man, and that it was 
to repair the wrong then done that the Incarnation 
was decreed. On the other hand, there is much to 
persuade us that the Personal Union of God with 
His creature was part of the "eternal purpose which 
God appointed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

* i St. John 5 : 20. f Professor Westcott in loc. 

\ Essay on " the Gospel of Creation" at the end of commentary on 
" The Epistles of St. John." See Appendix H. 



THE INCARNATION. 5 I 

At first sight there is one text, common in popular 
quotation, which would seem to be against this state- 
ment. It is in the Book of Revelation, " The Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." This is one 
of those interpretations which have arisen from the 
inadequacy of the Latin language to represent the 
delicate accuracy of the Greek. The Greek Fathers, 
for the most part, constrained by the true meaning 
of the preposition, connect the words "from the 
foundation of the world" with " the Book of Life," 
and not as commonly quoted. The preposition 
rather implying an act than a design. Where design 
is intended it would rather be expressed as St. Peter 
writes, " The precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb 
without spot or blemish, Who verily was fore- 
ordained before the foundation of the world." Here, 
however, it is rather the act than the design that is 
represented, as farther on in the same Book of the 
Revelation the same expression is attached to the 
words " Book of Life ;" " the names written in the 
Book of Life from the foundation of the world." 
When, however, the Greek was translated into Latin, 
the other view obtained, and in the Western Church, 
from the revised translation of St. Jerome, in later 
times, the words "from the foundation of the 
world" have been attached to the word " slain," as 
if to express design. This text, then, rightly under- 
stood, teaches the same as St. Paul, " Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath 
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ : Ac- 
cording as He hath chosen us in Him before the founda- 
tion of the world." There is no statement of a design 



$2 THE INCARNATION. 

that He should be slain from the foundation of the 
world.* 

On the other hand, do we not read that " all things 
were created by Him and for Him?" Is not this 
great and glorious mystery spoken of by St. Paul ? 
" To make all men see what is the dispensation of 
the mystery which from the beginning of the world 
hath been hid in God, Who created all things by 
Jesus Christ : to the intent that now unto the prin- 
cipalities and powers in heavenly places might be 
known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, 
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." f 

Indeed, the same may find some support in the 
careful language of the Nicene Creed, as Osiander 
(whose niece was married to Archbishop Cranmer) 
pointed out. The language is, " Who for us men, 
and for our salvation, was made man." " For us 
men" first was He incarnate — a wider benefit than 
the narrower one " for our salvation." 

Some speculators have given as a reason for the 
fall of the rebel angels that, when the purpose of the 
Creator was revealed to them, that creation was to 
be joined to the Creator by means of the Incarna- 
tion, the feeling of jealousy and pride was aroused 
which led to their fall. Of this we can know noth- 
ing more than that St. Peter tells us that the Incar- 
nation and the whole of its attendant mysteries were 
such ''as the angels desired to look into. " % No 
argument can be based upon such speculation. 



* See Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 1 St. Peter 1 : 19 ; Ephesians 1 : 4. 
f Ephesians 3:11. % 1 St. Peter 1 : 12. 



THE INCARNATION. 53 

From earliest times the building up of Eve from 
Adam's side has been regarded as typical of the 
Church of Christ, as intimated by St. Paul. In the 
document which dates from the earliest years of the 
second century, and is called the Second Epistle of 
St. Clement to the Corinthians, but is generally re- 
garded as an ancient homily, we find the following :* 
" I do not suppose ye are ignorant that the living 
Church is the Body of Christ ; for the Scripture 
saith God made man male and female. The male is 
Christ, the female is the Church." This would 
imply that the purpose of the Incarnation preceded, 
and was not contingent, upon the fall of man. 

Oh the marvellous love and mercy of the Creator ! 
Nothing can thwart His purpose, not even the 
utterly ungrateful affront of His favored creature ! 
How must we marvel with adoring love at that 
which has been called with reverence f "that im- 
perturbable mercy which held on its course in spite 
of man's rebellion !" " Oh that men would praise 
the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful 
works for the children of men ! Let them also exalt 
Him in the congregation of the people and praise 
Him in the assembly of the elders !" 

God hath indeed " made known unto us the mys- 
tery of His will, according to His good pleasure, 
which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dis- 
pensation of the fulness of times He might gather 
together in one all things in Christ, both which are 
in Heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in 



* § 14, ed. Lightfoot, p. 326. 

f Mason's " Faith of the Gospel," p. 148. 



54 THE INCARNATION. 

Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being 
predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who 
worketh all things after the counsel of His own 
Will."* 

When man had sinned, then the Divine plan was 
not, could not, be frustrated ; but that which the 
love of the Creator had determined His mercy car- 
ried out, taking the wise Serpent in his own crafti- 
ness and triumphing over him in the defeat which 
he thought he had achieved, the death on the Cross. 

When man sinned then came to man the Gospel 
of Redemption in addition to the Gospel of Creation. 
Thenceforward all things worked together toward 
the final intervention of Divine Power. Just as 
there had been a gradual advance from the moment 
of the commencement of life upon the earth, until 
Divine intervention was necessary in the formation 
of man into the Image of God, so from the utterance 
of the Gospel of Redemption there was a continual 
and gradual preparation for " the fulness of time," 
when the final intervention took place. 

All along this period " God left not Himself with- 
out witness" in Scripture and out of Scripture. In 
Scripture we read of prophecies, types, and appear- 
ances vouchsafed to keep alive the memorial of the 
promised Gospel, and to bear witness to its truth, 
that " when it is come to pass we may believe." 

Not only do the prophecies become more frequent 
and more luminous as their fulfilment drew near, 
but the subject-matter of the moral teaching of the 
prophets became more and more what we may call 



* Ephesians i : 9-11. 



THE INCARNATION. 55 

evangelical as the "fulness of time" approached. 
But suddenly, some three hundred years before the 
great central event of history took place, prophecy 
ceased, and there was an awful hush, like " the silence 
of half an hour" in the vision of the Apocalypse* 
before the sacerdotal act of the angel in offering in- 
cense, or the still more awful hush of Spy Wednes- 
day spent by the Lord in retirement at Bethany, 
from which He issued to speak and act as God on 
Maundy Thursday, and to offer the "full, perfect, 
and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for 
the sins of the whole world" on Good Friday. 

But during the silence " God left not Himself 
without witness ;" for in His Providence the Old 
Testament was translated into the most sensitive 
language in the world, that the Word might " have 
in every city them that preach Him, being read in 
the synagogues every Sabbath day." Here, too, 
was a marvel whereby as ever the Truth might be 
testified to from of old, that " when it is come to 
pass we may believe." If, in the course of time, 
error creeps into certain passages, lo, we have the 
Greek translation, the Authorized Version of the 
Jewish Church in the Apostles' times to help us to 
correct the error ! 

In what has been called the Protevangelium of Re- 
demption, in Genesis 3 : 15, a curious error, arising 
from a slip of the style or pencil, came into vogue in 
the fourth century, productive of much important 
consequence even in the nineteenth century. We 
read in the Douay Version : " I will put enmities 

* Revelation 8 : 1. 



$6 THE INCARNATION. 

between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her 
seed : SHE shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie 
in wait for her heel. " This has arisen from the little 
mistake of writing an a for an e, Ipsa for Ips<?. If 
we turn to the Greek we find the unmistakable mas- 
culine avros, He, and the modern edifice built on 
the feminine collapses.* 

Then there is the glorious prophecy of Isaiah, 
" Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, 
and shall call his name Immanuel."f Here some 
would endeavor to say this simply means "this 
young woman ;" and it is no miracle that a young 
woman should bear a son. But, thank God, the 
answer is at hand. The Greek translators in the 
third century before Christ interpreted it " The 
Virgin," and the prophecy of Jeremiah is of similar 
import. ' The Lord hath created a new thing in 
the earth, A woman shall compass a man. ' ' ^ 

But passing from prophecy to type, which is a 
prophecy in act, the whole of the Old Testament 
bristles with types, as we should expect, and the 
moment the " eyes are opened to understand the 
wondrous things," the heart must find utterance in 
words of adoring praise. From the time of Abra- 
ham's child of promise, from Samson and others to 
John, the son of the priest Zachariah, each child 
born, to a certain extent, out of the course of nature, 
was a type so far of the Virgin Birth. 

Every passage in the sacred life of Sacrifice of the 
Lord Jesus has some representative in type. All 
sacrifices were in a degree types of Him, and there- 

* See Appendix I. f Isaiah 7 : 14. % Jeremiah 31 : 22. 



THE INCARNATION. 57 

fore could the Forerunner cry, " Behold the Lamb 
of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." 
For " Christ our Passover Lamb is sacrificed for us" 
— the Lamb without spot or blemish. Isaac carry- 
ing the wood up the hill, and bound upon the wood 
to die ; the serpent raised on high on the pole, that 
those who looked unto it might live, what striking 
types of the crucifixion ! Joseph let down into the 
empty cistern and unjustly committed to prison; 
Jeremiah let down into the dreary dungeon for his 
faithfulness, are but foreshadows of Him Who for 
no fault of His own went down for a while to the 
spirits in prison — went down to Hades. Isaac alive 
from sacrifice ; Joseph raised from prison to the right 
hand of power and feeding his brethren with bread ; 
Israel rescued from Egypt ; Samson at midnight 
bursting from Gaza and carrying away the gates ; 
Jonah restored to light and life from the great fish, 
what are they all but types of the Resurrection of 
the Lord about midnight, being advanced to the 
Right Hand of God, and feeding His brethren with 
the Bread of Heaven ? 

Then there is the third group of witness, which 
God gave to man before the Incarnation was com- 
plete, the Theophanies, or mysterious appearances 
at certain epochs in history. 

The early writers of the Church ever delighted to 
see in the Old Testament certain hints or statements 
that God had spoken to and had been seen by men. 
They claimed these appearances as proleptic mani- 
festations of the Incarnate Lord. We may not for 
one moment suppose that God the Son in His Divine 
Nature is less invisible, less infinite than either of 



58 THE INCARNATION. 

the other Persons of the Ever Blessed Trinity. 
The statement of St. John is absolutely true : 
" None hath seen God at any time," that is as God, 
in His Divine Nature. But when we know that the 
Person Who in '* fulness of time" became Incarnate 
was God the Son, we can understand that these 
appearances were, as it were, preludes of the Incar- 
nation, certain proleptic reflections, manifested an- 
ticipations of what was about to come to pass, which 
was to Him (before Whom there is no past or future, 
but all is an eternal present) as real as though it had 
already taken place. So that in merciful condescen- 
sion the Creator accustomed His creatures to the 
thought of beholding Him in human form. 

In the account of the Garden of Eden we read 
that the sinful pair " heard the Voice of the Lord 
God walking in the garden," the very phrase imply- 
ing an appearance as man. But here and elsewhere 
before the separation of Abraham, as God's chosen 
friend, the Revelation is said to be by a Voice of 
one speaking. But to Abraham we read ' ' The 
Lord appeared" as of a revelation to the eye, and 
not to the ear alone. In the deeply mysterious 
covenant-making vision recorded in the fifteenth 
chapter of Genesis it is said : " The Word of the 
Lord came unto Abram," but at this time (the vision 
was by night) the Presence of the Word of the Lord 
was not revealed in human form, but by " a smoking 
furnace and a lamp of fire that passed between those 
pieces." Some have doubted whether this was a 
waking vision, but as it said that " He brought 
Abram forth abroad" to see the multitude of the 
stars, and later on that " a deep sleep fell upon 



THE INCARNATION. 59 

Abram," it is most probable that at first, at all 
events, it was a waking vision. This particular 
vision is also remarkable for another phrase, the ex- 
pression " Lord God" occurs twice in the account 
of this vision, and nowhere else in the Book of 
Genesis. The form of the Hebrew word for Lord 
belongs (as has been shown by others) in an especial 
manner to the Second Person of the Ever Blessed 
Trinity. When, therefore, we read in Malachi, the 
last of the prophets, " The Lord, Whom ye seek, 
shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the Angel 
of the Covenant, Whom ye delight in ;" it is as we 
should expect, and all Christian interpreters are 
agreed that the Lord Who is the Angel of the Cove- 
nant is the same as the Word of the Lord Who ap- 
peared to Abraham and made the covenant with 
Him ; the same as the Angel of the Lord that 
appeared to the Patriarchs, even God the Word. 

How exquisitely tender is the account of the first 
appearance of the Being of unique grandeur, the 
Angel of the Lord. Hagar, the slave of Sarah, 
wronged by her mistress and of a high spirit, is fugi- 
tive and like to perish. What can we imagine as 
more deserving of tender compassion than a fugitive 
slave, about to become a mother, wandering without 
food or guidance in the trackless desert? " And 
the Angel of the Lord found her," found her as if 
in His compassion He had been seeking her. And 
again, a second time to Hagar, a second time an out- 
cast, it is the Angel of the Lord that came with 
words of sympathy and encouragement. 

But time fails to speak of all the appearances at 
the various periods of crises of distress or necessity 



60 THE INCARNATION. 

of the chosen of God. He it is that forbids the 
death of Isaac on Mount Moriah ; that watches over 
and appears to Jacob ; that led the people in the 
wilderness; Who appeared to Gideon; was seen 
of Zachariah. To Moses there was the prom- 
ise,* " My Presence (or rather as the Hebrew has it, 
My Face) shall go with thee, and I will give thee 
rest," and Moses said, " If Thy Face go not up with 
me, carry us not up hence." This the Greek trans- 
lators naturally render " Except Thou go not up 
Thyself with us." 

I dare not go on to speak of more Theophanies or 
preludes of the Incarnation ; how God the Word 
was seen of Isaiah (as testified by St. Johnf), by 
Ezekiel and Daniel, and other holy men of old ; 
attention must be drawn to the fact that the appear- 
ances granted for keeping up the witness of the 
promised Gospel gradually ceased, as did prophecy, 
and to a certain extent (with the exception of the 
sacrifices) types, as the awful hush of the three hun- 
dred years' silence preceded the realization of " the 
desire of all nations." 

Nor did " God leave Himself without witness" 
outside Scripture. There are to be found in many 
heathen nations traces of a belief in the Incar- 
nation of God, often, alas ! defiled and obscured by 
the grotesqueness and impurity of the minds of sin- 
ful men, but still testifying to primeval or patri- 
archal tradition. 

Nay, more than this, there is the marvellous fact 
of the whole course of history converging upon this 

* Exodus 33 : 14, 15. f St. John 12 : 41 quoting Isaiah 6. 



THE INCARNATION. 6l~ 

one central fact ; history, not only of the Jews, but 
of the various nations of the world, proving that 
11 the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
giveth it to whomsoever He will." The conviction 
arising from the observation of this has been the 
means of converting many to the truth. A great 
historical scholar of^the last century, who had been 
sceptical, suddenly saw the clew to his historical 
difficulties.* ' The whole world seemed to be 
ordered for the sole purpose of furthering the re- 
ligion of the Redeemer, and if this religion is not 
divine, I understand nothing at all." No fortuitous 
concourse of atoms of history could have produced 
the development of events making the whole order 
of the world fit for the Birth of the Lord. 

But at length there came " the dispensation of the 
fulness of time," and God "gathered together in 
one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven 
and which are on earth," and God the Son was born 
into the world a man: "The Word was made 
Flesh." 

" O Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of 
him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him ! 
Thou madest him lower than the angels to crown 
him with glory and worship ! " 

"The fulness of time had come," the heiress of 
the throne of David was a maiden of low estate in a 
poor village of a despised district of a conquered 
country. What could seem weaker in the eyes of 
men ? As an heiress she was espoused to her nearest 
male relation, whose genealogy would be the same 

* See Appendix F. 



62 THE INCARNATION. 

as hers one or two steps back. She must have been 
of tender years, for though espoused she was not 
married. As beseemed an holy maiden she was with- 
in, perchance at her devotions, when the Angel 
Gabriel came with his message of stupendous im- 
port. As the first word in Latin of the angel's mes- 
sage was the name of our first mother in Latin re- 
versed, so the Latin Fathers have delighted to say 
that Mary's humble, faithful, obedience, reversed 
Eve's proud, distrustful, disobedience. The Ave of 
the angel was the commencement of the reversal of 
the fall of Eva. If when the devil spake to Eve, our 
death hung on her reply, may we not say that when 
the angel spake to Mary, our life hung on her reply. 
Truly the faith of the Blessed Maiden must have 
been stupendous ! " When the fulness of time had 
come God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." 
" Behold !" cried Isaiah, in rapt prophecy ; " Be- 
hold ! a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. " One 
hundred years of human life later Jeremiah pro- 
claimed, "The Lord hath created a new thing in 
the earth, A woman shall compass a man." Seven 
hundred years after Isaiah " the fulness of time" 
came, and " the Word was made Flesh ;" " made 
of a woman" only ; made of the Virgin Mary, His 
mother. 

Reason, logic, experience of man are here stulti- 
fied, and yet we cannot but see the fitness from all 
points of our limited view. There are four ways in 
which we can conceive of man being produced. 
First, without man or woman, as was Adam, by 
God's will alone ; secondly, of man alone, as was 
Eve by God's operation ; thirdly, of man and woman, 



THE INCARNATION. 63 

as the generality of mankind by God's blessing - ; last- 
ly, of woman alone by the operation of God, as was 
Christ. Had not this last possibility been realized 
the universe would not have been perfect. So 
reasoned the holy man of old.* 

Reason and experience must stand aside, but faith 
is quickened, hope bounds to the front, and love 
blazes forth like the fire on the altar which was 
never to die out. Faith, hope, and love cling around 
the Son of man, Who is also the Son of God. With- 
out the Incarnation this were impossible, for God is 
of Majesty Unapproachable. 

The message was received at Nazareth in Galilee, 
but the Scripture said that Christ should be born at 
Bethlehem, and the exigencies of the Empire of 
Rome were to be allowed to bring this about. A 
census was to be made previous to taxation, and the 
Heiress of David with her espoused guardian went 
to Bethlehem, where the family records of David 
were then, that the two might be registered and en- 
rolled for civil purposes. But not for purposes of 
worldly empire alone. When shall we learn the 
lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn at such cost 
to himself, " that the Most High ruleth in the king- 
dom of men." Augustus at Rome was but caring 
that Christ should be born at Bethlehem when he 
bade his scribes issue his mandate. 

" And so it was that, while they were at Bethle- 
hem, the days were accomplished (the fulness of 
time had come) that she should be delivered. And 

* St. Bonaventura quoted by Westcott in " The Gospel of Creation." 
St. John's Epistles, p. 288. 



64 THE INCARNATION. 

she brought forth her Son, the Firstborn, and 
wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him 
in a manger ; because there was no room for them 
in the inn." 

God's "strength is made perfect in weakness." 
" God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things that 
are mighty." 

The glorious and marvellous news was first related 
to simple shepherds doing their duty to their sheep ; 
" Keeping watch over their flock by night." To 
them the message came by a solitary angel, " Unto 
you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord." And when the mes- 
sage was delivered, while the shepherds were 
amazed, the heavens could not contain themselves 
for joy. The dark violet curtains of night were 
rolled back, the stars disappeared, and the whole 
welkin was alive with multitudes, multitudes of the 
Heavenly host praising God and saying, " Glory to 
God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill 
toward men." 

Ay, and who can contain themselves when they 
think of this exhibition of the love and mercy of the 
Creator ? The angels received an access of blessed- 
ness and benefit from the conjunction of their Creator 
with His creature ; the various divisions and de- 
partments of the Created Universe were " partakers 
of the benefit," but how much more the whole race 
of man ! Words are utterly inefficient to express 
the feelings of joy and gratitude that we feel at 
Christmas. 



THE INCARNATION. 6$ 

Glory be to God in the highest ! Glory be to the 
Father Who sent His Son, glory be to the Son, the 
Word made Flesh for us, glory be to the Holy 
Ghost by Whose operation the Word was made 
Flesh. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and 
ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 
5 



LECTURE IV. 

PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

*' That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our 
hands have handled, of the Word of Life." — i St. John i : i. 

The beginning of the First Epistle of St. John has 
a great similarity to the beginning of his Gospel : 
this has been remarked by all commentators from 
the first. There is, however, this difference : while 
the commencement of the Gospel leads up to the 
Incarnation, the Epistle begins from the Incarnation 
and speaks of the resulting effects or responsibilities. 
As the later Greek Fathers point out, St. John be- 
gins his Epistle by claiming for the Christian faith 
that it is " from the beginning ;" it cannot be spoken 
of as new by the side of Jew or Gentile creed ; it 
ranks far before either, and they are inferior in age, 
and the Gentile corrupt in addition. 

He claims that this perfection of the Incarnation 
is the groundwork of all Christian teaching ; it is 
the basis of Christian creeds and Christian morality. 
He claims here the perfection of the Body of the 
Incarnate Lord, as he claims the evidence of the three 
senses which bear on the question — hearing, seeing, 
touching. Indeed, upon the second of these — see- 
ing — he dwells somewhat remarkably, perhaps as 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 67 

reierring to that sense to which credence is most 
commonly given, but not only so, for the word and 
the tense are both changed and there is meaning in 
the change. The first statement " we have seen 
with our eyes," is of a sure personal experience, 
while the second, " we gazed upon," implies careful 
investigation, steady contemplation, and is grouped 
with "our hands handled," which speaks of no 
superficial or hasty impression, but the deliberate 
and matured assent of the satisfied senses. Still the 
mystery thus assured was no modern or recent de- 
velopment, it was "from the beginning," as St. 
Cyril of Alexandria* said : " The mystery of Christ 
was no recent thing, but rather it was foreordained 
before the foundation of the world as God foreknew 
what would be." But when the " fulness of time" 
had come, and the course of events was ripe for the 
fresh intervention of Divine Power, then ** the Word 
was made Flesh," by the operation of the Holy 
Ghost. The great stress laid by St. John on the 
Human nature of our Lord shows that the mind of 
Christians in his day had so fully accepted the super- 
natural and superhuman character and nature of the 
Lord that, as the Docetae did in his own day and as 
Eutyches did afterward, they were apt to ignore, 
or explain away, or to minimize the reality of His 
Body, and the integrity of His Humanity. 

Hookerf has beautifully represented one reason 
given by the Fathers, why God the Word became 
Incarnate rather than the Holy Ghost ; but this irn- 



* On Isaiah, Book III., Tom. V. (Isaiah 41 : 4). 
f " Ecclesiastical Polity," Bjok V., li ; § 3. 



68 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

plies that the main reason of the Incarnation was the 
Redemption of mankind. " It became Him by 
Whom all things are, to be the way of salvation to 
all, that the institution and restitution of the world 
might both be wrought by one Hand." St. Athana- 
sius* has the same idea, which he expresses thus : 
" The Word alone could repair and restore the Im- 
age of God in man, because He is the Divine Proto- 
type. By means of men this were impossible, for 
they were made after an Image ; nor could it be by 
angels, for not even they are God's Image. . . . None 
other was sufficient for this need, save the Image of 
the Father. The Word was Redeemer because He 
was the Creator." So St. Augustine : "In your 
mind is the Image of God, the mind of man takes the 
Image. It received it and by turning aside to sin 
discolored it. He that had previously been its 
Former, Himself comes to it as the Reformer, be- 
cause by the Word were all things made, and by 
the Word was the Image impressed on the mind." f 
The Word was made Flesh. 

Here, then, comes in a startling thought, which 
arises out of this stupendous mystery. The flesh 
thus assumed by God the Son must thus become 
Divine. St. Peter, therefore, is not afraid to say of 
those who by Baptism have become members of 
Christ, as it were married to Him, " members of 
His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones," that 
they - are " partakers of the Divine Nature." St. 
Athanasius,;J: therefore, relying upon this, boldly 

*" De Incarnatione,"xiii., Opera Patavii, 1777, Tom. I., Pt. I., p. 47. 
f See also St. Leo. Serm. De Pass. Dora., xii. 
\ Orat. c. Arianos, II., § 70, Opera I., p. 425. 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 69 

says : " Therefore did He assume the originated 
and human Body that, having renewed it as its 
Framer, He might in Himself make it Divine, and 
thus lead all of us into the Kingdom of Heaven after 
His Likeness." And again, " For He was made 
Man that He might make us Gods in Himself. ' ' And 
again, " He was Incarnate as Man, that we might 
be made Gods. ' ' This is in and by intimate union with 
Him. For the Council of Constantinople* in the 
seventh century was not afraid to say that " His 
Flesh had become Deified ;" and the pseudo-Chry- 
sostom draws the natural conclusion that in conse- 
quence of this His Body was "to be worshipped 
with God the Word, since by oneness with Him He 
had Deified it." Therefore is it that we worship 
Him as Man ; " O Son of David have mercy on 
us !" 

This, however, must not lead us to the error of 
supposing that our Blessed Lord did either adopt a 
phantom Body, or having adopted a real body, so 
absorbed it into His Divinity as to have practically 
but one Nature and that Divine. St. John is strong 
in his protest against this. Not only does he say 
that " the Word was made Flesh," not only " Every 
spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in Flesh ;" 
but also " they that confess not Jesus Christ still 
coming in Flesh, he is a deceiver and an antichrist." 
The Lord Jesus Christ was born into the world a 
human being " made of a woman ;" He retained the 
integrity of His human nature all His life, He died 
and rose again with the same Body, He could say, 

* "Labbe Concilia," Tom. VI., col. 1026. 



yo PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

" Behold My Hands and My Feet, that it is I Myself 
— Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not Flesh and 
bones as ye see Me have." He is still " coming in 
Flesh ;" He therefore is Perfect Man still. Oh glori- 
ous thought ! There is even now at the Right Hand 
of the Majesty on High, A man, wearing our nature 
in common with us. Therefore may we say with 
St. Paul that " God hath made us sit together in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

But here again we have to avoid another error, 
which would lead us to think that, as there are two 
Natures, intimately conjoined, but perfectly distinct, 
in Christ, so, likewise, there must be two Persons. 
This error would cut at the root of Christianity. 
We saw that as angels cannot be said to have a 
common nature, so that if " He had taken hold of 
angels," the benefit would have been mainly, if not 
wholly, confined to the particular angel assumed. 
Similarly, had the Lord taken to Himself the Person 
of a man, inasmuch as no one person can share his 
personality with another, that human Person would 
have been infinitely advanced and would have re- 
ceived benefits far beyond any other creature ; 
though even then some benefit might have (to speak 
with deepest reverence) leaked out to other crea- 
tures ; even as the family of a Prince receive some 
distinction from the exaltation of their relative. 
But the Person of God the Son took to Himself the 
Nature of man and not the person of a man. So that 
when " the Holy Thing," born of the Virgin Mary, 
had attained the period of growth when it achieved 
personality, the Personality was that of God the 
Word, the Son of the Father. ' The Flesh and the 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 7 1 

conjunction of the Flesh with God began both at 
one instant ; His making and taking to Himself our 
Flesh was but one act, so that in Christ there is no 
personal subsistence but one, and that from ever- 
lasting. By taking only the nature of man He still 
continueth one Person, and changeth but the man- 
ner of His subsisting, which was before in the mere 
glory of the Son of God, and is now in the habit of 
our Flesh. . . . Christ is a Person both divine and 
human, howbeit not therefore two Persons in one, 
neither both these in one sense ; but a Person divine, 
because He is Personally the Son of God ; human, 
because He hath really the nature of the children of 
men. In Christ, therefore, God and man, ' there is 
(saith Paschasius) a twofold substance not a twofold 
Person, because one Person extinguisheth another, 
whereas one nature cannot in another become ex- 
tinct.' For the personal being which the Son of 
God already had suffered not the substance to be 
personal which He took, although together with the 
nature which He had, the nature also which He took 
continueth. Whereupon it followeth against Nes- 
torius that no Person was born of the Virgin but the 
Son of God, no Person but the Son of God bap- 
tized, the Son of God condemned, the Son of God 
and no other Person crucified, which one only point 
of Christian belief, the infinite worth of the Son of 
God, is the very ground of all things believed con- 
cerning life and salvation by that which Christ either 
did or suffered as Man on our behalf." * Therefore 
saith our Article " two whole and perfect natures — 

* Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," Book V., ch. lii., § 3. 



72 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

that is to say, the Godhead and the Manhood, were 
joined together in one Person, never to be divided, 
whereof is one Christ, very God and very man." 
So that we can say He suffered, He was buried, He 
descended into Hades. For even when in death His 
Body was separated from His Soul, so that His Body 
was laid in the sepulchre, and His Soul and Spirit 
went to the place of departed spirits, and " preached 
to the spirits in prison," yet His Deity was separated 
from neither Body, Soul, nor Spirit. " The Body 
and Soul still subsisted as they did before by the sub- 
sistence of the Second Person of the Trinity." 

It was a failure to perceive this that gave rise to 
the heresy of the Nestorians. For if the Person of 
the Son of God was born of the Blessed Virgin, she 
was the mother of Him Who is God, and therefore 
the Mother of God. From this title they shrank 
with a somewhat natural awe and dread, and wished 
to express it by the phrase Mother of Christ, but the 
Person of Christ was God the Son ; and when they 
were pressed by this truth, they sought refuge in 
the graver heresy of asserting a double personality, 
which is alike contrary to Scripture and Reason. 

" The Son of God by His Incarnation changed 
the manner of that Personal subsistence, which be- 
fore was solitary, and is now in the association of 
Flesh, no alteration thereby accruing to the nature 
of God." I would here again take refuge in the 
accurate language of Hooker, " Of both natures 
there is a co-operation often, an association always, but 
never any mutual participation whereby the proper- 
ties of the one are infused into the other. A kind of 
mutual commutation there is whereby those concrete 



PERFECTION OP SYMPATHY. 73 

names God and Man, when we speak of Christ, do 
take interchangeably one another's room, so that for 
truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say that 
the Son of God hath created the world, and the Son 
of Man by His death hath saved it, or else that the 
Son of Man did create and the Son of God die to save 
the world. . . . When the Apostle saith of the Jews 
that they crucified the Lord of glory, and when the 
Son of Man being on earth affirmeth that the Son of 
Man was in Heaven at the same instant, there is in 
these two speeches that mutual, circulation before 
mentioned. In the one there is attributed to God, 
or the Lord of Glory, death whereof Divine Nature 
is not capable ; in the other ubiquity unto man which 
human nature admitteth not. Therefore by the Lord 
of Glory we must needs understand the whole Per- 
son of Christ, and in like manner by the Son of Man 
the whole Person of Christ must necessarily be 
meant, Who being man upon earth filled Heaven 
with His glorious presence, but not according to 
that nature for which the title of Man is given 
Him." 

Therefore is He the Son of Man, and not the Son 
of a man. This will account for the title " Son of 
humanity" given Him in the Liturgy of Malabar. 
He is the Representative man, the last Adam, in 
Whom once more mankind is recapitulated,* and 
drawn up to a head, as they had all issued from one 
head, the first Adam. 

He took our nature in the fulness of its integrity. 
He had a perfect Body, and He has it now. In 

* Ephesians 1 : 10. 



74 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

order to have perfect sympathy with us He took our 
nature from its very threshold. Man was, as our 
Article correctly expresses it, " very far gone from 
original righteousness ;" not as some inaccurate the- 
ologians speak, utterly depraved and incapable of 
grace. Had this been true, the Incarnation would 
have been impossible as a partaking of our nature. 
There might have been a fresh Creation from the 
dust of the ground, but He would not then have 
" tabernacled in us ;" it would not have been true, 
" forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part 
of the same." This was seen from the first, as said 
St. Irenaeus :* "If the first Adam was taken from 
the earth, and God was his Maker, it was necessary 
that He also that was summed up into him should 
be made man by God and have the same likeness of 
origin as the former. Why, then, did not God again 
take dust, but rather ordained that the foimation 
should take place from Mary ? It was that there 
might not be one thing formed and another thing 
saved, but that one and the same might be reca- 
pitulated (or summed up), the likeness being pre- 
served." 

There was, then, in man somewhat on which God 
could take hold and build up a sinless Body. 

Here, then, must we avoid two errors, one on 
either hand. The one would think it necessary that 
the glorious and unique Blessedness of the Virgin 
Mary should be extended to her mother, and that 
Mary also should be conceived without spot of sin. 

* St. Irenseus, III., 21 ad fin., Opera, Paris, 1710, p. 218. 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 75 

But here the argument of St. Athanasius, with re- 
spect to the Arian misconception of the Mediator, 
will hold good. They said that the creatures of 
themselves were far too weak to endure the force of 
the Father's creating power, therefore the Son was 
a created Mediator. But, said St. Athanasius, this 
does but drive the difficulty a little farther back, 
and to satisfy this objection there must be an infinity 
of Mediators. Then he exclaims, " What extraor- 
dinary nonsense all this is !" If, then, for the honor 
of our Lord it is necessary that His Blessed Mother 
should have been conceived and born without spot 
of sin, this does but drive the difficulty a little farther 
back. But we find that almost as a warning St. 
Matthew in the regal genealogy of our Blessed Lord, 
most unusually inserts the names of four women, 
each of whom has some blot or stain of character : 
incestuous Thamar, the harlot Rahab, the Moabitess 
Ruth, the adulterous Bathsheba. The purity ab 
iftitio of the last link is no more necessary than that 
of previous links. Remark, too, that though the 
main stock or trunk of the tree of Jesse was cut 
down and only the stump remained, though the line 
of Solomon after the flesh was cut down and his 
idolatrous seed were exterminated, as would seem 
probable, yet as St. Luke shows in his natural gen- 
ealogy of our Lord, the descent by natural birth 
was from Nathan the younger son of David by the 
same adulteress Bathsheba, so that this argument 
cannot be put on one side by assuming St. Luke's 
genealogy to be more correct. Then, again, the 
Lord Jesus would be isolated from us, and He would 
not be in perfect touch and sympathy with us if the 



j6 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

opinion of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary were a truth of God and therefore a 
necessary doctrine. 

On the other hand, a far more terrible error has 
appeared first in this century ; it is so horrible that 
few have ever spoken of it. The very gifted but 
strange Edward Irving, from whose congregation 
the so-called " Irvingites" took their rise, invented 
the notion that our Lord took to Himself a body of 
sinful flesh, ol fallen humanity. This has only to be 
mentioned to be rejected with abhorrence. 

The Incarnate Lord, then, had a perfect Body, sub- 
ject to infirmities but not defects. It was shaped 
and born ; it grew in size and strength ; it ate and 
drank ; moved, worked, and walked ; hungered, 
thirsted ; became faint and weary ; slept, suffered, 
died. But we do not believe that He assumed any 
personal defect such as disease. 

He had also a Human Soul, the seat of the affec- 
tions. One ancient heresy (that of Apollinaris) from 
an endeavor to explain the Incarnation, attempted 
to argue that one part of the invisible nature of man, 
the " reasonable soul," was lacking in the Saviour, 
and that the Person of God the Word took its 
place. But this view was condemned, for then 
there would not be perfect sympathy with mankind, 
and such a view would leave one part of man's nature 
unredeemed. The soul is that part of man which 
sides with the flesh or spirit, whichever is the 
stronger, and therefore often in the struggle the 
soul is troubled. Therefore, when there was for a 
time a struggle between the Divine and Human will 
in the Saviour, He could say, " My soul is exceeding 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. Jf 

sorrowful, even unto death," as He had before, " My 
soul is troubled and what shall I say ?" 

He had also a Human Spirit. There does not ap- 
pear sufficiently good reason for doubting that St. 
Luke wrote of the Holy Child Jesus as of His cousin 
John, " The Child grew and waxed strong in Spirit, 
filled with wisdom." The passage is a remarkable 
one, showing the gradual growth of the Holy Child, 
showing the reality of His manhood. " The Child 
was continually growing, and being strengthened in 
Spirit, being filled with Wisdom." It was a gradual 
process, as in the human infant. Then, as in the 
Magnificat, the Blessed Virgin said, " My spirit 
hath rejoiced ;" so we read of her Son, " Jesus re- 
joiced in Spirit." So of deep sadness at sin and sor- 
row around Him, we read one while " He sighed 
deeply in His Spirit," another while " He groaned 
in the Spirit and was troubled." At his death He 
said, " Father, into Thy Hands I commend My 
Spirit ;" and then the separation from the trammels 
of the body communicated new energy to His Spirit. 
He w^as therefore " quickened in the Spirit, in which 
also He went and preached unto the spirits in 
prison." 

He was perfect man. He grew in body, He was 
gradually strengthened in Spirit, He was being filled 
with wisdom. He learned, He asked questions, He 
marvelled. But we do not read that He ever forgot. 
When we are told that He asked what should be done, 
we are specially told "that this was to prove His 
Apostle, for He Himself knew what He would do." 
Hence it would appear that He never took counsel 
for Himself ; He may have done so as an example to 



78 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

us, but not for Himself, M for He Himself knew 
what He would do." 

Here, then, there must be a warning against an 
error which is now coming more and more to the 
front. The phrase of St. Paul, which is, indeed, 
hard to be understood, " He made Himself of no 
reputation," is being submitted to a strain which the 
comparison with other Scripture would hardly allow 
the words to bear. The Greek is "emptied Him- 
self" — that is (as Bishop Lightfoot explains it), 
" stripped Himself of the insignia of Majesty." St. 
Irenaeus seems to have had this in his mind in writ- 
ing :* "For as He was man that He might be 
tempted, so also was He the Word, that He might 
be glorified ; the Word remaining quiescent, while He 
was being tempted, dishonored, crucified, and dying ; 
but being associated with His manhood when it over- 
came, and was patient, and was doing good, and rose 
again and was received up." This is a good com- 
mentary on St. Paul. We must always bear in mind 
what has been beautifully expressed as follows :f 
" It is vain to try to express in words that of which 
nothing but the Gospels open before us can ade- 
quately convey the extent, the impression left on 
our minds of One Who all the while He was on 
earth was in heart and soul and thought undivided 
for a moment from Heaven. He does what is most 
human, but He lives absolutely in the Divine. 
However we see Him — tempted, teaching, healing, 
comforting hopeless sorrow, sitting at meat at the 



* Adv. Haer., III., 19, Opera, Paris, 1710, p. 212. 
f "Gifts of Civilization." Sermons by R. W. Church, Dean of St. 
Paul's, pp. 91, 100. 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 79 

wedding or the feast, rebuking the hypocrites, in 
the wilderness, in the temple, in the passover cham- 
ber, on the cross — He of Whom we are reading is all 
the while that which His own words can alone ex- 
press, ' ever the Son of Man Which is in Heaven.' 
The Divine Presence, the Union with the Father, is 
about Him always, like the light and air, ambient, in- 
visible, yet incapable ever in thought of being away. ' ' 
' The Gospels show us One with the greatest of 
works to do, a Work so great that it sounds unbe- 
coming to qualify it with our ordinary words for 
greatness ; One never diverted from His work, never 
losing its clew, never impatient, never out of heart, 
Who cries not, nor strives, nor makes haste ; One 
Whose eye falls with sure truth and clear decision 
on everything in the many-colored scenes of life ; 
One around Whom, as He passes through the world, 
all things that stir man's desire and ambition take 
their real shape, and relative place, and final value ; 
One to whom nothing of what we call loss or gain is 
so much as worth taking account of in competition 
with that for which He lived." 

This is what the Gospels reveal to us ; we must 
then be careful to avoid the error which would sug- 
gest in some way that our Blessed Lord somehow 
laid aside His attributes or essential character as 
God, which He resumed at the Resurrection and 
Ascension, having prayed for this in His High 
Priestly Prayer at the Mysterious Last Supper. 

He is perfect Man : " He knoweth whereof we are 
made," by personal experience. He has perfect sym- 
pathy with mankind in everything : not in individual 
eccentricities, but in that which is common to all. 



80 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

Therefore was it that He entered the line of " trans- 
mitted humanity" rather than assumed a new crea- 
tion outside that which already existed. 

Some few points of this perfect sympathy must 
here be spoken of, that by these we may learn all ; it 
were impossible in a short lecture to treat of all. In- 
deed, it may be said that it is impossible for any one 
man to deal with all. The Lord was in perfect sym- 
pathy with all men, of all places, of all times. An 
Eastern will find points of sympathy which would 
not be observed by a Western ; a modern man will 
rejoice over continually discovered points of sym- 
pathy which were passed over by the ancients. It 
would then be impossible for one man to grasp that 
which is infinite in its possibilities. As it is, the re- 
proach of the Oriental seeker after Christ is too well 
deserved : " Christ we know is neither of the East 
nor of the West, but men have localized what God 
meant to be universal." 

First, then, we will speak of one point which has in 
modern times been objected to the perfection of our 
Lord's Human character. It has been said that per- 
fection cannot be ascribed to His Humanity "from 
the absence of mirth and of laughter as its natural 
and genial manifestation." The objection is worthy 
of remark and of consideration if well founded. 

It is remarkable that when He was on earth the 
Lord suffered the reproach of sympathizing too 
much with men in their times of mirth and joy, as 
well as in their sorrows and pains. " The Son of 
Man (He says of Himself) is come eating and drink- 
ing, and ye say, Behold ! a gluttonous man and a 
wine bibber." It was John the Baptist that was 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 8 1 

represented as the morose man, standing aloof from 
the ordinary joys of mankind ; of him the same critics 
said : " He hath a devil." 

It has passed into a proverb that it is recorded 
that the Lord Jesus wept,* but never recorded that 
He smiled, and no doubt this is true. But no thor- 
ough student of history would maintain that because 
a thing is not recorded therefore it never happened ; 
and in our Blessed Lord's case more has been denied 
that is recorded than affirmed to have taken place 
which has not been recorded. 

Unquestionably we must remember that the East- 
ern mind in adult age, aye and even in childhood, is 
essentially grave and serious. The Eastern babes 
that I have seen seemed to me preternaturally serious 
and apathetic. In Egypt they would not even brush 
away the many flies that settled about the eyes to 
drink the moisture of the tear. But this is no an- 
swer to the objection ; because this is, it may be, a 
local peculiarity, an eccentricity, and not a common 
characteristic of humanity. It is quite true that the 
sober moralist of the East said, " I said of laughter, 
it is mad ; and of mirth, What doeth it ?" f but at the 
same time Scripture gives many instances of great 
humor, which is akin to mirth. 

How deeply humorous is the ready answer of 
Joash in defence of his son Gideon ! When the peo- 
ple, angry at the profanation of the idol altar, de- 
manded the death of Gideon, Joash at once answered 
them with ironical humor, which was accepted as 



* See St. Bernard, De Adv. Don., Serm. 1 V. , juxta Ji n. 
f Ecclesiastes 2 : 2, cf. 3 : 4. 
6 



82 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

unanswerable. " What ! (he seemed to say) are there 
any who are so presumptuous as to suppose Baal 
cannot plead for himself ! Baal powerless ! Bring 
the man who dares to say this forward and let him 
be put to death right away while the day is yet 
young !" The only argument here is a humorous 
one. The same sense of humor seems to have been 
hereditary, for it reappears in the fierce mood of 
Gideon. When in stress of excitement he threatened 
the men of Succoth, he meant what he said in anger. 
But when he returned in triumph as conqueror, his 
anger is tinged with grim humor ; and his father's 
saying makes us feel that the reading of the Bible of 
the English Church is probably correct. Gideon 
" took thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with 
them he caused to know the men of Succoth." 
Those who have had personal experience of " the 
thorns of the wilderness" will realize the humor of 
the phrase. Then what humor there is in the irony 
of Elijah :* " Cry aloud : for he is a god ; either he 
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, 
or perad venture he sleepeth, and must be awaked." 
Nor, indeed, does the moralist refuse laughter alto- 
gether ; he says : " There is a time to weep, and a 
time to laugh," but he agrees for man here on earth, 
" Sorrow is better than laughter," and the " house 
of mourning better than the house of feasting," be- 
cause, as he says, " a feast is made for laughter, and 
wine maketh merry. ' ' 1 here need be nothing wrong 
in mirth, then, because the Eastern apathetic mind 
despises him 

" Whose lungs are tickle o' the sere." 
* i Kings 18 : 27. 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 83 

Let us agree, then, that the essential emotion of 
which mirth and laughter are the outward expres- 
sion is a part of our moral nature.'* John Keble, the 
generally reputed saint of our times in our Com- 
munion, was full of fun and mirth. The moral ele- 
ment is nothing but joy and gladness, which are only 
evil when in sympathy with sin or something sin- 
ful. Of this mirth and laughter are the outward ex- 
pression, and therefore accidental accompaniments. 
The infant will laugh from sheer joy of life, as the 
young of all animals bound and gambol, while others 
around the infant will laugh and smile from sym- 
pathetic joy, for mirth is infectious. To this joy and 
gladness (the " gladness of life," as Scripture hath 
it) a stimulus is given by the exhilaration arising 
from food and wine. There is nothing wrong here 
when there is no excess. The grace after food com- 
mended by St. Chrysostomf is a remarkable proof 
that that ascetic saint regarded physical exhilaration 
from food as a blessing from God. " Thou, Lord, 
hast made me glad through Thy works." Here there 
seems a distinct reference, rightly or wrongly, to 
the " wine that maketh glad the heart of man ;" 
which, as St. Paul would tell us, is one of the good 
creatures or works of God. This joy and gladness 
is stimulated at times by physical enjoyment, and 
often finds outward expression in mirth and laugh- 
ter. The essence of the emotion would seem to be 
sympathetic gladness. The " many twinkling smiles 
of Ocean" betoken the depths beneath ; mirth and 



* See St. Clement, Alex., Paed. II. v., Potter, Tom. I., p. 196. 
f In Psalm 41, Opera, Tom. V., p. 133a. 



84 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

laughter are but the surface ripples which tell of joy 
and gladness within, and when there is no sin and 
wrong connected with that inner gladness there is 
none to be found in the outward manifestation. 

Now our Lord took our nature from its very in- 
ception, and the only glimpses we have of His life 
before His ministry go to prove that He was very 
man, among human beings of His own age. As an 
infant "the Child was continually growing, and 
being strengthened in spirit, being [gradually] filled 
with wisdom." He was as other infants ; the same 
words are used of His cousin John. The next glimpse 
we have when He was twelve years old. But how 
natural it all is ! When the caravan was on its return 
to Galilee, even the Blessed Virgin took for granted 
that the Holy Child was somewhere in the company. 
He was so like an ordinary lad that she thought He 
was with some of His mates. She thought He was 
wandering, as any restless boy might, seeking for 
amusement, seeking for interest. It is all very won- 
derful, but it shows how human He was. It is ut- 
terly different from the noxious romances called 
" Apocryphal Gospels." We cannot, then, suppose 
that He was so unlike other human infants that He 
did not sanctify childhood by participating in its 
natural character of healthful joy. It seems impos- 
sible to suppose that He did not answer with sym- 
pathetic smile to the holy joy of His Virgin Mother. 
If He ever manifested this joy of life as a child, the 
emotion must have been in His nature. 

But poetry says otherwise :* 



* Mrs. Browning. 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 85 

" No small Babe smiles my watching heart has seen 
To float like speech the speechless lips between." 

" This aspect of a Child, 

Who never sinned or smiled" 

This may be poetry ; it is not scriptural or histori- 
cal. It is, indeed, a rather morbid view, and cannot 
be accepted as approaching verisimilitude. John 
Keble, in his Prelections as professor of poetry, ex- 
tolled the poetry of the painter who exquisitely 
rendered the Holy Child in His mother's arms larger 
and more intellectual than nature would warrant. 
Such may be poetry, it is not history ; there we may 
not draw upon our imagination for our facts. The 
morbid fancy of a poet is no proof that the Holy 
Babe did not smile. * It would seem doubtful 
whether any mother could say that the Babe did not 
smile. The whole account of His Infancy is so 
human that the burden of proof lies with the gain- 
say er. 

But passing by this accident of the essential emo- 
tion — that is, the outward expression of mirth, we 
do find sure symptoms of sympathetic gladness in 
our Lord's character. 

But before speaking of these we must bear in mind 
the terrible physical strain of continuous weariness 
on our Lord's Human Body. From the time of His 

* On the other hand may be cited the Christmas hymn : 

" For He is our childhood's Pattern, 
Day by day like us He grew : 
He was little, weak, and helpless, 
Tears and smiles, like us, He knew ; 
And He feeleth for our sadness. 
And He shareth in our gladness." 



86 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

Baptism and Confirmation, and His subsequent forty 
days' fast, throughout the years of His ministry till 
His sinking to rest upon the Cross, was a period of 
unbroken weariness, and of such mental strain, in 
daily contact with sinful men around Him, as we can 
have no distant conception of ; and this alone would 
have been physiologically antagonistic to outward 
expression of mirth. 

Still we have constant reference to gladness in the 
Lord's parables ; in the lost sheep and the lost 
piece of money, when the recovery of the lost is 
celebrated by calling the neighbors together to re- 
joice over the success, and sympathetic joy is spoken 
of as existing among the angels of God ; and in many 
other parables. His Presence at a marriage feast 
showed this sympathy. He must have gone straight 
from His forty days' fast and two or three days' so- 
journ near the scene of His forerunner's ministry to 
the marriage feast with his newly-acquired disciples. 
He would not have gone thither to be a damper on 
their joy on so mirthful an occasion. Nay, He 
showed His full sympathy in their joy and gladness 
by His first miracle, whereby He prevented the poor 
bridegroom from being put to shame in his seven 
days' feast by lack of that which helped to make up 
their little satisfaction. He performed His first 
miracle to show His sympathetic gladness with the 
joy of the feast, and gave His host one hundred and 
forty gallons of that " which maketh glad the heart 
ot man." Then, again, there is His reference to 
childhood's light-heartedness : " We have piped unto 
you, and you have not danced ; we have mourned 
unto you, and you have not lamented." This could 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 87 

not have been said had He not sympathy with inno- 
cent gladness and mirth. Nor can we exclude from 
this argument the Lord's great love for little chil- 
dren, Whose characteristic in health and loving en- 
vironment is merry mirthfulness.* Thus, while the 
self-control and staidness of our Lord's character 
was in perfect sympathy with the Eastern mind, 
there is sufficient intimation that He was also in sym- 
pathy with the innocent light-heartedness of mirth. 

However, let us feel well assured that our Blessed 
Lord's Humanity is a perfect humanity, and if we in 
our feebleness do not at the moment see the exact 
answer to an objection, we may feel that without 
doubt it is susceptible of a complete refutation. In 
this case, indeed, we may feel that objectors must be 
hard up indeed for an argument, when lack of mirth- 
fulness and laughter is cast up against the perfection 
of the character of Jesus Christ. We feel that w r e may 
have spent too much time over the objection, but 
the reason is that it has not commonly been noticed. 

Another point of perfect sympathy which presents 
a difficulty is the Lord's gradual growth out of 
ignorance, and indeed the fact of His ignorance alto- 
gether. How could it be possible that the Person of 
God the Son could in any way be ignorant when He 
was the Wisdom of God ? Still here, again, we see the 
perfection of His Manhood. He made acquaintance 
with the weakness of our understanding, while, at 
the same time, as St. Irenaeus says, " The Word was 
quiescent. ' ' This growth could not have affected the 
infinite knowledge of God the Son anj^ more than 

* See Appendix K. 



88 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

growth of Body could have affected the infinity of 
His Incomprehensible Majesty. The Fathers dis- 
cussed the question continually, and came to the con- 
clusion that He was ignorant only as man, and so far 
forth as knowledge came to Him through His man- 
hood. Thus " though He were a Son, yet learned 
He obedience by the things which He suffered ;" i.e., 
He learned as Man, for as Man alone could He suffer, 
and learning implies advance in knowledge, and 
therefore implies comparative ignorance at least.* 

It has been said that the Lord's Body was not 
subject to disease, because it was a perfect Body. 
We do not anywhere read that He was subject to 
sickness of Body, and indeed there are two a priori 
reasons why we should expect that He would ex- 
perience immunity from sickness. The one would 
be drawn from the perfect sinlessness of His Body, 
the other from His perfect sympathy with man. 
For first of all, generally speaking, sickness arises 
from some effort of nature to extrude some defect of 
body, whether originally existing or imparted from 
without. But the Lord's Body was perfectly free 
from original defect ; and so far was it from being 
receptive of infection or poison from without, that 
it derived such vitality from its union with God, 
that its touch was the source of health to others, f So, 
again, the Lord had perfect sympathy with man— not 
with this or that man, but with mankind at large. 
Now, humanly speaking, it were impossible that the 

* See Appendix L. 

f For the case of the leper healed by the Lord, it is noteworthy 
that each of the Synoptic Gospels records that He touched the leper 
(St. Matthew 8 : 3 ; St. Mark 1 : 41 , St. Luke 5 : 13). 



PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 89 

Lord could have had experience of every kind of 
sickness to which fallen flesh is heir, so that if we 
had read that the Lord had voluntarily undergone 
this or that sickness, it would have been possible for 
one man to say, " My Lord has more sympathy with 
me than with many others, for I now suffer from the 
same sickness that He underwent." But His per- 
fect sympathy caused Him to accept what was com- 
mon to man without condescending to the various 
forms of eccentricity developed in individuals. He 
voluntarily laid down His life, not because He was 
subject to death, but because mankind is subject to 
death. Here, then, may we see the interpretation 
of the prophecy of Isaiah as quoted by St. Matthew : 
' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick- 
nesses." The New Head of the human race, the 
last Adam, sustained all the collective burden of 
human sickness in undergoing the common end of 
all sickness, even death ; and in the extremity of woe 
of that death He summed up all the pains of all 
varieties of sickness and disease. In His case, too, 
the suffering was the greater, since the more refined 
the nature the more sensitive it is to pain. The 
Lord, therefore, suffered as none other man suffered 
or can suffer. Thus He had perfect sympathy with 
us in our sicknesses. 

Then, again, just as Adam at the first summed up 
in himself all mankind, and therefore had the moral 
characteristics of both sexes,* so in the last Adam 
we see the same. There are seen the gentleness, the 
sympathy, the self-sacrifice of the female, and the 

* See Appendix M. 



90 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

strength of will, the hatred of hypocrisy and cant, 
the severe uprightness of the male. Thus, again, He 
has perfect sympathy with all, and each sex may 
look to Him as their Exemplar and approach Him 
with holy confidence. 

Again, there has been implanted in mankind the 
principle of resentment, which is directed against 
moral evil and injury done in the world. That 
anger, which is one form of this, is not wrong we 
can learn from St. Paul, who cites the Greek trans- 
lation of the Hebrew, and thus gives the Greek an 
authority which otherwise it would seem to lack : 
" Be ye angry, and sin not." Anger, then, may be 
without sin. Let us not allow this anger to degener- 
ate into sin by brooding over it or allowing a just 
indignation to settle on its lees into malice or re- 
venge. We need scarce ask whether in this prin- 
ciple, common to all, the Lord Jesus had any share ; 
none can read the Gospels without recognizing His 
indignation against sin, His withering scorn of hypoc- 
risy or false casuistry. One while in His indigna- 
tion He drove out by His single arm (once with a 
scourge made of ropes, once with the mere force of 
His wrath) the crowd of hucksters and traders from 
the Temple ; another while He scathed with bitter 
irony the wicked casuistry of the schools, " Full 
well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye 
may keep your own tradition ;" another while He 
turned upon the hypocrites with the severe denunci- 
ation of the eight Woes.* Herein, then, again, we 
see the same. 



* See Appendix N. 



FERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 91 

Another difficulty which exercised men of old was 
the existence of a human will in the Man Christ 
Jesus. We are sometimes admitted to see the exist- 
ence of this. In the deeply mysterious saying of our 
Lord in the Court of the Gentiles on the Tuesday in 
Holy Week we see this, " My soul is troubled, and 
what shall I say ? [Shall I say] Father, save Me from 
this hour ? [Nay] but for this cause came I unto 
this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name." Here is 
distinct evidence of the voluntary submission of the 
human will to the Divine. It was, indeed, the sacri- 
fice of the will that was so well pleasing to God, 
" the will (as saith St. Bernard) by which He chose 
to die, more than the death itself." We see, then, in 
the Lord two wills, the human will in perfect free- 
dom subjecting itself to the Divine Will. 

There is, then, no age of either sex with which the 
Lord cannot sympathize in all the sorrows and per- 
plexities of our complex life. In Body, Soul, and 
Spirit His sympathy is perfect. For the Lord was 
perfect man in every respect in which we can " gaze 
upon Him," and as such was perfect in sympathy 
with all of us who have bodies. As a result, 
St. Mark, in the concise picturesqueness which is 
his distinguishing characteristic, tells us that the 
primeval control over the brute creation granted 
to the First Adam was renewed in the Second 
Adam. In His temptation " He was with the wild 
beasts." 

May we learn by His example, may we use the 
power granted to us by union with Him to tame and 
subdue the wild beasts of evil passions and evil within 
ourselves that we may be found worthy to sing the 



92 PERFECTION OF SYMPATHY. 

song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb, 
and worship Him that sitteth on the Throne, saying, 
" Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and 
honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, 
and for Thy pleasure they were and were created." 



LECTURE V. 

THE ATONEMENT. 

" Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." 
—St. John i : 29. 

What we have been considering thus far is in- 
deed enough to fill us with deepest wonder and 
gratitude. " What is man that Thou hast been thus 
mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou hast 
thus regarded him !" Surely it is enough to warm 
the coldest heart, to fill the most apathetic with 
love. That the All Holy, self-contained God should 
in His overflowing love determine to call a creature 
into existence is indeed marvellous. That the Crea- 
tor should determine that, when the fulness of the 
time had come, He would admit the creature to inti- 
mate and even personal union with Himself, is again 
a thought that is far exceeding our powers to grasp 
fully. We believe that the Exemplar of humanity 
is and always was present to the mind of God as 
humanity as it is in Christ Jesus. Man was formed 
in the image and likeness of God, and also after the 
Ideal existing in the Design of the Creator ; so that 
the Creator might become Incarnate in the form 
predetermined from all eternity. When, therefore, 
it pleased God the Son to reveal Himself to the 
Patriarchs, we may believe without impiety that 



94 THE ATONEMENT. 

He assumed an appearance similar to that Body 
which fie would assume when the fulness of time 
had indeed come. So that though the Son of God 
is in His Divine Nature equally invisible with God 
the Father, yet as a prelude or proleptic premoni- 
tion, He assumed the appearance of a Body, such 
as He had determined to adopt really and perma- 
nently at His Incarnation. All this is indeed wonder- 
ful, and we cannot be surprised in the least that the 
minds of the members of the early Church were so 
full of the glorious thought that God had really 
come down to earth, that many sought to explain 
this by a denial of the reality of His Manhood. We 
see how full their minds were of the stupendous 
thought that their Lord Jesus Christ was God. 
The first martyr dies invoking his Lord as God, and 
the members of the Church become thenceforward 
spoken of as a class of " them that call upon the 
name of Jesus Christ our Lord ;" * the word is the 
same as when St. Peter says, "If ye call on the 
Father." f It is used of invoking a higher author- 
ity, and when calling for spiritual help distinctly im- 
plies that the Person so invoked is God. The word 
had been used to translate the passage in Joel, 
where, speaking of Gospel times, as St. Peter tells 
us, the prophet says, " It shall come to pass that 
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall 
be delivered." % This title alone, then, would prove 
this great truth, that the early Church clung with 
the greatest firmness to the belief in the Divinity of 
" Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." 



* i Corinthians 1:2. f 1 St. Peter 1:17. % Acts 2 : si. 



THE ATONEMENT. 95 

It is a great grief to many of us that the Unitarian 
perversion (for it is no less) of the text in the Epistle 
to the Romans has been admitted to the margin of 
what has been called the Revised Version.* No 
doubt it is true, as one of the faithful Revisers has 
stated, that it shows that such perversion was de- 
liberately rejected after serious consideration ; but 
there is some cause for sorrow in the tone in which 
Unitarians have welcomed the intrusion into the 
margin, with the scarcely veiled hope that at the 
next revision it will be thrust into the text it- 
self. 

But cancel all the various texts, in which we re- 
joice, which tell directly of the Lord's Divinity, and 
yet you cannot eliminate the flood of proofs in almost 
every line that the writers of the New Testament, 
and so those for whom they wrote, believed fully in 
our Lord's Divinity. He is enshrined in their in- 
most thoughts ; He is the absolute Sovereign of their 
life, temporal, moral, spiritual. In Him they live 
and move and have their being. The one great mo- 
tive power of all their action was this, " GOD was 
manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of 
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in 
the world, received up into glory." 

When, however, some began to bring philosophy 
into Christianity they commenced their endeavor to 
explain away the Incarnation. They acknowledged 
the Divinity, but how could this be reconciled with 
true humanity ? When errors came in by way of 
explanation, then St. John proclaimed with persist- 

* See Appendix O. 



g6 THE ATONEMENT. 

ent reiteration the necessity of absolute belief in the 
fact " that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh." 

This being the case, we should expect some care- 
ful description of our Lord's Birth and Infancy, but 
let us see how it is, let us examine the contents of the 
four accounts of the Gospel — that is, of the history 
of Jesus Christ. 

Of these four accounts only two mention the fact 
of His Birth, only two give us any account of the 
first thirty years of His life, from His Birth till His 
Baptism. Of these St. Matthew devotes rather less 
than one twentieth of His book, and St. Luke rather 
more than one tenth of His book to the first thirty 
years of the Lord's life. Then of the next period 
until the Passover, mentioned in St. John 6 : i, all 
four evangelists say much. If we put the whole four 
books together, rather less than one third of the en- 
tire record is devoted to this period ; St. Matthew 
is the fullest, St. John the least full. Of the next six 
months the record is slight ; St. Mark is rather the 
longest here and St. Luke the shortest, his account 
being one third the length of that of St. Mark in 
this section. For the next six months the record is 
about twice the length of the previous section. St. 
Luke here is far the longest, his record is ten times 
that of St. Mark, whose account is the shortest, and 
nearly double that of St. John, who comes next to 
St. Luke in length. From Palm Sunday until 
Maundy Thursday, the first four days of Holy Week, 
the record is nearly as long as that of the previous 
six months, St. Matthew giving the discourses on 
the Tuesday in the Temple and on the Mount of 
Olives. The account of Maundy Thursday Even- 



THE ATONEMENT. 97 

ing and Good Friday equals the previous section 
in length. Here the three Synoptic Gospels are 
nearly of the same length, while St. John is longer, 
because he gives the discourses of the Lord at the 
Mysterious Supper. If these were left out of the 
reckoning, the Story of the Cross would be about the 
same length in each Gospel.* 

These may be thought dry details, but they seem 
to teach us something. They teach that though 
the writers differed about the importance they at- 
tached to certain portions of the Lord's Life, they 
did not in the least differ about the importance ol 
His Death. 

Turn, then, to the later writings of the New Testa- 
ment. The Book of the Acts contains five discourses 
of St. Peter. Each is framed on a similar skeleton. 
On the Birthday of the Church, the day of Pente- 
cost, he spakef of "Jesus of Nazareth, a man ap- 
proved of God among you by miracles and wonders 
and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of 
you, as ye yourselves also know." In his speech to 
the friends of Cornelius, the centurion, he spoke of 
the Lord % " Who went about doing good and heal- 
ing all that were oppressed of the Devil, for God 
was with Him." But the scheme of all his addresses 
may be given in the condensed report of his speech 
before "the Council." "The God of our fathers 
raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a 
tree. Him hath God exalted with His Right Hand 
to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance 
unto Israel and forgiveness of sins ; and we are His 

* See Appendix P. f Acts 2 : 22. { Acts 10 : 38. 

7 



98 THE ATONEMENT. 

witnesses of these things ; and so also is the Holy 
Ghost, Whom God hath given to them that obey 
Him."* They were to be witnesses of His death 
and resurrection, as the same St. Peter had said 
before the election of St. Matthias, " Of these men 
must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His 
Resurrection ;" f a witness not of His holy life, not 
of His miraculous works, but of His Resurrection, 
which necessarily implies His Death. St. Paul, 
therefore, declared that at Corinth, at all events, he 
would know nothing in his preaching " save Jesus 
Christ, and Him crucified." % 

From this time the Cross became the very symbol 
of Christianity. Christians delighted to see some 
symptom of the power of the Cross everywhere in 
nature, in art, in mythology. In Egypt, in Scandi- 
navia, in India, even in Kamschatka the Cross has 
been found as a symbol. In Egypt in one form it is 
the symbol of life, in another the symbol of steadi- 
ness and strength. In Scandinavia it is the symbol 
of life and strength. Thus throughout the Old 
Testament they recognized everywhere foreshadow- 
ing of the Cross ; no hint, however slight, to the 
minds of moderns seemed too small to awaken de- 
lighted acceptance with the early Christians in the 
first vigor of their eager faith. Not only in the 
brazen serpent on the pole, and the arms stretched 
out of Moses in prayer, when Israel fought with 
Amalek, but also in the outstretched arm of Joshua 
with the spear in it, in the cruciform spit of the 
Paschal Lamb, in the two sticks gathered by the 



* Acis 5 : 30. f Acts 1 : 22. \ 1 Corinthians 2 : 2. 



THE ATONEMENT. 99 

widow to prepare her meal, in the rod of Moses, in 
the tree thrown into the bitter waters to make them 
sweet, in the Tau marked on the foreheads of the 
saved in Ezekiel, and many more. Not only so, but 
the Christians employed the sign of the Cross as a 
" seal " or external sign of blessing and protection. 
The Christian world was absolutely full of the Cross. 
Why, then, was this ? 

It has arisen doubtless from the deep conviction 
that all hope of pardon for sin, all hope of reconcili- 
ation with God, all hope of eternal life, all hope for 
the future depends upon the one fact,* that *' when 
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ 
died for the ungodly." " Christ once suffered for 
sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God." f 
" Christ was delivered for our offences, and rose 
again for our justification." ^ Therefore, well did 
the Apostle cry out, " God forbid that I should 
glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto 
the world." § No wonder the first Apostles at- 
tached themselves once and forever to the Lord 
when they heard the witness of the forerunner : 
" Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the 
sins of the world !" 

This was the one persuasion that filled the hearts 
of all, that God the Son had become Incarnate and 
died on the Cross for them. Therefore was the 
Cross the one emblem of their faith ; therefore was 
the Cross regarded as "the sign of the Son of 

* Romans 5:6. f 1 St. Peter 3 : 18. 

X Romans 4 : 25. § Galatians 6 : 14. 



IOO THE ATONEMENT. 

Man." * Therefore is it that the enterprising- mari- 
ners hailed the Southern Cross of Stars with awe 
and joyful hope. Therefore do Western travellers 
recognize with hopeful awe the Cross marked on the 
mountain. Therefore have the legends arisen about 
the Cross marked on the back of the ass, and the 
red breast of the robin, and others such. Christians 
delight to see in everything some token of their 
Redemption. 

Here, then, brethren, bear with me for one mo- 
ment, if, as in private duty bound, I glory in the 
fact that my nation has made the Cross the sign of 
freedom to the slave throughout the world. Our 
ships, our navy, our soldiers glory, in the flag of the 
triple Cross — the Cross of St. George, the Cross of St. 
Andrew, the Cross of St. Patrick. The Cross pro- 
tects them when alive and covers them as a pall 
when they die. It is not for nothing that we gather 
ourselves together under the banner of the Cross. 

But while the early Christians rejoiced even more 
in the fact of their having been " redeemed with the 
precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without 
blemish and without spot," f they raised no question 
as to the method, as to how the Redemption took 
place. They were too overcome with gratitude to 
ask for or to reason about the process of the Atone- 
ment made for their sins. When fervor of love be- 
gan somewhat to cool and questioning began, then 
man began " to darken counsel with words without 
knowledge." % 

In the providence of God the great truths about 

* See Appendix Q. \ I St. Peter I : 19. % Job 38 : 2. 



THE ATONEMENT. IOI 

the Person of our Blessed Lord and the great facts 
of our Redemption have been settled, but there is 
still much mystery about the mode and method of 
the Atonement. Certainly if there were no mystery 
connected therewith, we would be apt to think that 
it could not be of God, Who Himself is to us sinful 
men the deepest mystery of all. True it is that 
those do well who in simple, humble faith accept 
the glorious fact without arguing ; still it is also true 
that those who seek reverently to use their reason, 
which is the great gift ofGod, in the endeavor 
to understand some fringe of the mystery, cannot 
be doing ill. True is that the question "How 
can ?*\ is often the question of doubt or halting faith, 
as when Nicodemus * said of Regeneration in Bap- 
tism, " How can these things be ?" and as when the 
Jews f said of the other Gospel Sacrament, "How 
can this man give us His Flesh to eat ?" Rut we 
must remember that we should " be ready always 
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a 
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and 
fear.".]: We cannot do this without some careful 
thought. If this is requisite for all, how much more 
for the clergy, that they may " rightly divide the 
word of Truth." 

Here, indeed, we may say that one reason why 
the doctrine about the Atonement has caused so 
much difficulty in some minds is, that the word of 
truth has been not rightly divided. The Christian 
Religion comprehends one consistent scheme of doc- 
trine, and no one part can be distorted or exagger- 

* St. John 3 : 4, 9. f St. John 6 : 52. % 1 St. Peter 3 : 15. 



102 THE ATONEMENT. 

ated without marring the whole. When the Atone- 
ment has been represented as the act of a loving 
Creator, the Son of God, to appease the wrath of 
His angered Father, this at once introduces very 
grave error of fundamental importance. First we 
read " God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son." Next we believe that there neither 
is nor can be any divergence of will between 
Father and the Son. If God the Father be regarded 
as angered by sin, we must remember that there is 
such a terrible thing as " the wrath of the Lamb."* 
If " God is Love," " God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto Himself." f The Atonement began 
and ended in the Love of God. But we must re- 
member that true, real, deeply earnest love may 
be much sterner than the more superficial, shallow, 
and even selfish benevolence. 

Then side issues have been raised about the mean- 
ing of the English word Atonement and its use in 
the English Bible. But these are all beside the mat- 
ter. True, the word is an old English word. In 
the West of England, to this day, when any persons 
have quarrelled they are said to be " at two ;" when 
the quarrel is made up they are " at one" again. 
In the New Testament the word is used for a Greek 
word which means " reconciliation," but a some- 
what different meaning has been since attached to 
the word, and it is with the meaning that we have 
to do. But brushing all these aside, let us humbly 
and faithfully endeavor to see if we may in some 
little degree pick up some few pebbles on the shore 

* Revelation 6 : 16. f 2 Corinthians 5 : 19. 



THE ATONEMENT. 103 

of the great ocean of mystery before us. Let us 
humbly submit ourselves where we cannot fathom 
" the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and 
knowledge of God. For unsearchable are His judg- 
ments, and His ways past finding out." * In such 
matters we must wait until " we know, even as we 
are known," for if a man must confess that he does 
not know himself (and who does know himself thor- 
oughly ?), he cannot expect here on earth com- 
pletely " to know the mind of the Lord." 

We have already seen that all history bears wit- 
ness to a disorder in man, which science can only 
explain by explaining it away. This disorder is sin ; 
it is not, it cannot be natural to man ; it must be 
some deviation from his natural condition. There 
is evidence of a sense of this in heathen men apart 
from Scripture. St. Paul could say, "■ The good 
that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would 
not, that I do ;" f and the heathen could say, " I 
see the better and approve of it, but I follow the 
worse." J 

We believe that man was made by God and for 
God, therefore man's only happiness is in union with 
God. But when man's will chose that which was 
contrary to God's will, that union with God could 
no longer continue. This union being severed, man 
by himself alone could do nothing whatever to re- 
pair the breach. His life was cut off from the true 
Life. This is represented by his being cut off from 
the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden. He 



* Romans 11 : 33. f Romans 7 : ig. 

\ Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII. 20. 



104 THE ATONEMENT. 

might yearn after reunion, he might be conscious of 
some loss, though he knew not what he had lost, but 
he could do nothing whatever to restore the loss. He 
was like a frozen man, utterly unable to approach 
the source of heat and light, that he might live and 
move. A sinful state is alienation from God ; and 
each act of sin, while it testifies to such alienation, 
can but increase, if possible, the alienation which 
already exists. 

But still more. We read that the first act of man 
after his first great sin was to hide himself, or to 
endeavor to hide himself from God, among the trees 
of the garden. This was from a sense of shame, 
which is a sense of guilt. This sense of guilt is to 
be met with among the better living among the 
heathen. The Apostles and early preachers of Chris- 
tianity among the Gentile nations made this very 
sense of guilt the groundwork of their appeal to the 
conscience. This it was which gave such meaning 
and force to the earnest addresses of St. Paul, 
" Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade 
men." * This it was that made Felix tremble when 
Paul " reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and 
judgment to come." The Emperor Caesar was a 
long way off, and Felix could easily deal with accusa- 
tions to be preferred against his maladministration 
in that court ; but when the judgment to come was 
pleaded, then his consciousness of guilt compelled 
him to feel that he would not so easily escape in this 
tribunal ; and hence it was that he trembled and 
tried to put the thought away from him, by dismiss- 

* 2 Corinthians 5 : II. 



THE ATONEMENT. 105 

ing from his sight the preacher of the coming judg- 
ment. If there had not been this sense of guilt, dor- 
mant, perchance, but still alive in man, the task of 
the Apostles and their successors would have been 
much harder. The sneer of the unbeliever, that the 
preachers of Christianity traded on the fears of their 
hearers, proves that there was this sense of guilt that 
could be awakened. 

Next, this would imply that there was some ex- 
ternal standard of right and wrong by which "ac- 
tions are weighed." For indeed the heathen 
" who know not God" still " show the work of the 
law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear- 
ing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accus- 
ing or else excusing one another." * Nor does this 
depend only on the word of St. Paul, though that 
would be enough for us. For, as has been most 
excellently pointed out, the same view is held by 
Aristotle and Cicero, testifying on behalf of the 
Greeks and Romans. Aristotle f had said of the 
upright, "Against them there is no law ; for they 
themselves are law." Cicero said :$ " True law is 
right reason, agreeable to nature, common to all, 
uniform, everlasting, which calls to duty by com- 
manding, by forbidding deters from wrong. . . . 
Nor will there be one law at Rome and another at 
Athens ; one now and a different one by and by ; but 
one law, both everlasting and unchangeable, will bind 
both all nations and at all time, and there will be in 

* Romans 2 : 15. 

f Polir. III., xiii. 14, quoted by Archdeacon Gifford in " Speaker's 
Commentary." 
\ See Appendix R. 



106 THE ATONEMENT. 

common one, as it were, Master and Emperor of all, 
God Himself." Cicero thus traces the law back to 
a personal power, Who is at once the expounder 
and interpreter of the law, God Himself. Indeed 
we cannot conceive of a law acting automatically 
without a personal Agent who will care for its en- 
forcement and punish every breach — at least, it seems 
to me impossible. 

The same feeling, common to all, which implies 
the existence of an external standard and a power 
to bring all to the test of this standard, implies also 
the absolute, unswerving uprightness of such power ; 
this, then, acknowledges the absolute justice of the 
punishment inflicted for the breach of the law. 

Coextensive with this feeling there is a practice 
of sacrifice, the origin of which cannot be traced. 
The rite is met with in the very commencement of 
the history of the Bible, and in secular and profane 
history as well. Greek philosopher, Roman magis- 
trate, Hebrew prophet, all offered sacrifice. With 
the Hebrews the fire of sacrifice was " ever burning 
on the altar, it never went out." With the heathen, 
sacrifice was connected with all important events of 
public and private life. That man should eat his 
meat " roast with fire," and not raw, has its origin 
most probably in the universal law of sacrifice. If 
this be so, it also implies that the sacrifice was re- 
garded as a token of the renewal or continuance of 
the covenant or union with God. For it would show 
that man learned to eat his flesh " roast with fire," 
by " eating of the sacrifice ;" the being " partakers 
with the altar" would betoken reconciliation with 
Him whose Altar it was, as the sharing of a meal 



THE ATONEMENT. IO7 

with a man betokened the commencement, continu- 
ance, or renewal of a covenant. Thus Laban and 
Jacob " did eat there upon the heap," perhaps of a 
common sacrifice,* certainly in token of peace and 
amity. So it was, therefore, when the covenant was 
made at Mount Sinai, f Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, 
and seventy of the elders of Israel, as the represent- 
atives of the nation of the Hebrews, ate and drank, 
probably of their sacrifices, in the immediate Presence 
of God, specially manifested at the time for the pur- 
pose of the Covenant. The clothing our first parents 
in coats of skins ^ has been regarded by some as an 
intimation that animal sacrifice had been offered in 
the innocence of Paradise. But when innocence was 
lost, and sin with its attendant guilt had come in, 
then there was a change, not in the rite itself, but in 
the aspect in Avhich it was viewed. The sense of 
guilt called into existence intense yearning for some 
propitiation, some mitigation in some way of the 
penalty attaching to sin, and sacrifice was regarded 
in some sort as a means of propitiation. There was 
a distinct feeling that something should be done to 
propitiate Divine wrath, and as between man and 
man " a gift in secret pacifieth anger," so a similar 
feeling arose between man and God. At the same 
time there was the full persuasion, on every ground, 
that the gift to be offered must be of the utmost 
value to the offerer. If it were of anything that 
came to hand, it would not be of sufficient impor- 
tance ; the loss to the offerer would not be in any de- 



* So says the Targum of Palestine. f Exodus 24 : n 

\ Genesis 3 : 21. 



108 THE ATONEMENT. 

gree sufficient to warrant the hope that the offence 
would be forgiven. This feeling naturally arose 
from the sense of the dignity of the One offended 
by the sin which had been committed. The very 
best of a man's possessions was far inferior to the 
man himself ; how, therefore, could a sacrifice of less 
value than the man avail before God ? The question 
of Balak was the great question of man, " Where- 
with shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
before the high God ? Shall I come before Him 
with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old ? 
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give 
my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my 
body for the sin of my soul?" * There seemed to 
be a demand for a human sacrifice, the least that 
could be offered, the least that could be accepted. 

Such feeling probably existed before the time of 
Abraham, so that the terrible test of his faith was 
probably not absolutely new to his experience. The 
offering of a firstborn son would be in the eyes of 
many a greater sacrifice than the immolation of self. 
Certainly human sacrifice was practised very widely 
if not universally. Among the Greeks and Romans, 
with the Druids of Gaul, if not of Britain ; with the 
Mexicans, when invaded by Cortes, human sacrifice 
was common and customary. This must bear testi- 
mony to a feeling that some valuable life is necessary 
as the least inadequate sacrifice to be offered to the 
offended Deity. Yet all along there was a sense 
that all was inadequate, all was really impotent and 

* Micah 6 : 6, 7. 



THE ATONEMENT. IO9 

valueless to effect what was sorely longed for, par- 
don and reunion with God. 

It has been said that careful examination of Reve- 
lation warrants the belief that the Creator designed 
a Personal Union between Himself and His creation 
from the first, and that man was the creature formed 
with s} T mpathies with the rest of creation with this 
special view, that in " the fulness of time" God 
would become Incarnate in man's nature. The 
merciful purpose held on its course notwithstanding 
the outrage of man's sin and defection ; but now, in 
addition to the mercy and love of taking the creature 
into Union, there was superadded the greater ex- 
hibition of mercy and love in the redemption and 
restoration of man. 

Of this there were many types, and among others 
the whole system of Levitical sacrifices. While we 
cannot tell (because Revelation is silent on the mat- 
ter) whether the origin of sacrifice was the command 
of God, yet we do know that God took that which 
was in existence and surrounded it with a cere- 
monial and ritual giving it a typical significance. 
This is what has ever been done. When the Lord 
was upon earth He took various clauses from prayers 
in use among the Jews and framed a prayer for His 
disciples. He took a rite, which was at all events 
then in use, and made it instinct with life as the 
initial imparting of the new life. He took bread and 
wine and made them the means of imparting spiritual 
food to His faithful members. So sacrifice in ordi- 
nary use in the world was taken and surrounded with 
typical solemnity in the ceremonial law of Moses. 

Here no doubt arises a question which has caused 



I IO THE ATONEMENT. 

much debate and many long treatises ; all this can- 
not here be entered upon. We can only deal with 
some broad points which may help us, and passing 
by the offerings of incense and show bread, we will 
speak only of the sacrifices which entailed the shed- 
ding of the blood of a victim. 

The offerer first laid his hands on the head of the 
victim. This symbolical act always implied that 
some effect was to result from this, some virtue or 
grace, or, as it would seem, guilt v/as understood to 
pass from the one who laid on hands to the other. 
Thus Moses was commanded to lay hands on Joshua, 
and we read,* " Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of 
the spirit of wisdom ; FOR Moses had laid his hands 
on him." So in connection with the sacrificial cere- 
mony it is clear that the guilt of the offerer was in 
some sense regarded as passing from the man to the 
victim. This is clearly stated in the case of the 
scapegoat on the day of Atonement. In this case 
we read :f " Aaron shall lay both his hands on the 
head of the live goat, and confess over him all the 
iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their trans- 
gressions in all their sins, putting them upon the 
head of the goat, and shall send him away by the 
hand of a fit man into the wilderness ; and the goat 
shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land 
not inhabited." So in the case of the offerer we 
read :{ " He shall put his hand on the head of the 
burnt offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to 
make an atonement for him." 



* Deuteronomy 34 : 9. f Leviticus 16 : 21. 

% Leviticus 1:4:4:4, etc. 



THE ATONEMENT. Ill 

Next the offerer was to slay the victim ; this would 
become an acknowledgment that death was the just 
punishment of sin, that it was what the offerer had 
righteously deserved. 

After this the blood was sprinkled on the altar ; 
the blood being regarded as the principle of life, 
this action would typify the offering to God the life 
of the victim. 

Then followed the consumption of the whole or 
part by fire. Here many explanations have been 
offered of the typical significance of this. It may be 
regarded as showing that the victim is given to 
God, and that nothing short of our best may be 
given to Him with acceptance. Then, as has been 
pointed out, since the word for burning is not the 
ordinary word, but one that is used for the smoke 
of the incense, this implies that the smoke of the 
sacrifice rising to Heaven represents the yearning 
of the heart toward God. The fire itself, having 
originally come from Heaven (" the fire shall ever 
be burning on My altar, it shall never go out"), 
would represent the fervor of love in the worshipper, 
originally implanted by God. " We love Him 
because He first loved us." 

Then followed in various sacrifices the eating of 
some part by the priest, and again in some the eat- 
ing by the offerer and his friends. As the priest is 
at once the representative of God and man, his eat- 
ing may be a token of reconciliation and renewal of 
the covenant between God and man, while the eat- 
ing of the sacrifice by the offerer would be the token 
of renewed oneness with God. To this St. Paul 
would seem to point, perchance, when he says : 



112 THE ATONEMENT, 

" For we being many are one bread, and one body ; 
FOR we are all partakers of that one Bread." * 

Here, then, we trace an acknowledgment of guilt, 
a recognition of the righteousness of the punishment 
for sin — viz., death, as well as an offering of the life 
to God in pouring forth the blood, the principle of 
life, and the renewal of the covenant and union with 
God. 

But these sacrifices also testified to the necessity 
of some offering which would at once be perfect 
and afford perfect restoration to union with God. 
For they testified to their own feebleness by the ex- 
cessive frequency of their being offered. For, as 
the writer to the Hebrews argues, if any one had 
real efficacy, then all would have been accomplished, 
and they would all have ceased to be offered. f 

But now, as we look around in the world, we see 
that they have ceased to be offered. When the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews was written they were still being 
offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. Soon afterward 
the Temple was destroyed, and the sacrifices at once 
ceased, and forever. Hebrews exist all over the 
world, a separate people, with a separate rudimen- 
tary faith, truncated, dwarfed, stunted, with no 
means whatever of offering the sacrifices which they 
must offer if they adhere to their faith in its integrity, 
so far as it goes. 

Here, then, is a marvel ! How can we account 
for it ? 

I, for my part, believe that on that day of Prepara- 
tion, when Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ was hang- 

* i Corinthians 10 : T7. f Hebrews 10 : 2. 



THE ATONEMENT. II3 

ing on the Cross, the supernatural darkness from 
noon till three o'clock prevented the offering of the 
daily evening lamb, as well as the annual Paschal 
Lamb.* I, for my part, believe that the name 
Preparation (still used for Good Friday, and so for 
all Fridays in the year) is a continual testimony that 
St. John and the early Christian writers are correctf 
in stating that the eating of the Paschal Lamb by the 
Jews was on the evening after our Lord's death. 
What a wonderful fulfilment of prophecy ! " In 
the midst of the week (the three years and a half of 
His ministry) He shall cause the sacrifice and obla- 
tion to cease." $ In the presence of that " one per- 
fect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfac- 
tion," the daily and annual type were "caused to 
cease." 

But whether this be so or not, we may rest assured 
that just as the dumbness of the priest Zachariah 
betokened the passing away of the power of sacer- 
dotal benediction from the Levitical priesthood, so 
the cry of the son of Zachariah betokened the pass- 
ing away of the Levitical priesthood altogether, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the 
sins of the world !" 

The Baptist here must have had reference to the 
Lamb of Sacrifice, the Lamb Who was to redeem us 
with His Blood. In this cry indeed is the whole 
Gospel of salvation. Here indeed is the One only 
perfect sacrifice, and when this was offered, after the 
probationary period of forty years, the Jewish sacri- 



* See Appendix S. f See Appendix T. 

% Daniel 9 : 27. See Appendix V. 
8 



114 THE ATONEMENT. 

frees ceased at once and forever. Nay more, the 
heathen sacrifices began at the same time to fail, and 
though the Apostate Julian strove to revive them, 
and in some form they lingered on here and there, 
yet they were moribund, and have now practically 
ceased. 

But when we come to ask the question either 
" How can these things be?" or " How was this 
done ?" then we have to be very careful lest we in- 
cur the reproach that " we darken counsel with 
words without knowledge." We durst go no farther 
than Scripture doth lead us by the hand.* 

The death of Christ, which is so thankfully insisted 
on, is represented by three images in the New Testa- 
ment ; no one could in any way exhaust the teach- 
ing ; and doubtless these three fail to cover all the 
meaning. The first figure employed is a propitia- 
tion or sin-offering, next a redemption, and thirdly, 
a reconciliation or atonement. 

It is a propitiation. Herein is satisfied that yearn- 
ing which seems inherent in man, for an expiation 
for his guilt. Man of himself alone could not offer 
an acceptable sacrifice ; Christ has done this on his 
behalf as his representative. Here, then, we may 
see that the wrath of God is the necessary (if we 
may say so with deepest reverence) hostility of the 
Divine nature to sin. In this there is not, there can- 
not be any, even the smallest divergence or differ- 
ence between the Persons of the Ever Blessed 
Trinity. We might almost call it blasphemy to say 
that the love of the Son sought to propitiate the 

* See Appendix W. 



THE ATONEMENT. 115 

anger of the Father ; as if both had not equal love 
and equal anger against sin. Sin is an outrage 
against God the Son as much as against the Father 
or the Holy Spirit. The wrath of God is the ex- 
pression of justice, which hates and punishes sin, as 
well as the hostility of an offended Person. We 
may believe, then, that as He is immutable, so the 
hostility to sin cannot be put away until the de- 
mands of His justice have been satisfied. Pain and 
suffering are the signs of God's hatred to sin. 
These were borne by Christ, though He did no sin. 
Death had been declared to be the penalty of sin. 
This Christ underwent for us, though He deserved 
it not. In Christ, the Second Adam, the represent- 
ative of man, there was a full and complete admis- 
sion of the righteousness of the sentence of God. 
The Cross of Christ was, on the one hand, a procla- 
mation of the judgment of God against sin, and also, 
on the other hand, on man's behalf, as has been very 
excellently said, " a perfect Amen in humanity to 
the judgment of God on the sin of man." 

If one feature of sacrifice was the offering of our 
best, was not Christ our very best, "chief among 
ten thousand, and altogether lovely?" He is, in- 
deed, as St. Peter said, "a Lamb without blemish 
and without spot." Therefore is He indeed "the 
Lamb of God." Hence was it that when " Christ 
gave Himself for us, He was indeed an offering and 
a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor," with 
such God was well pleased. 

The night before He suffered He Himself said : 

' This is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is 

being shed for many unto remission of sins." Thus 



Il6 THE ATONEMENT. 

He proclaimed Himself a sin-offering, and that His 
Blood was shed for forgiveness of sins. " He bare 
the sins of many," not as an arbitrary substitution 
of a sinless One for the sins of a whole race, but as 
their Representative, as bearing their nature (He 
took not the person of a man, but the nature of 
man), He " bare our sins in His Body on the tree" 
of the Cross. One while therefore He was repre- 
sented by the scapegoat bearing the sins and in- 
iquities of the people away from them, another 
while He was represented by the sin-offering put to 
death by those for whom He was a propitiation. 

There was a deep mystery in His death ; it was a 
voluntary submission, to which He had looked for- 
ward with increasing horror. But as the root of all 
sin is disobedience, so to this death the perfect obe- 
dience of the Sufferer gave value, which became 
infinite, from the infinite worth of the Subject. 

Here, too, we may perchance learn somewhat of 
the outskirts of the deep mystery of His death. 
11 He learned obedience by the things which He 
suffered," and therein " He became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the Cross." We may un- 
derstand somewhat of the terrible strain or effort of 
this obedience from the increasing horror of death 
which oppressed His innocent soul, part of which 
we are admitted to know. During the last year of 
His life and of His ministry, the thought of His 
death was ever present to His mind, and it wrung 
His soul more and more. When He had drawn the 
confession from St. Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God," St. Matthew tells us at once 
" from that time forth began Jesus to show unto His 



THE ATONEMENT. WJ 

disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and 
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests 
and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the 
third day." Thenceforward He endeavored to pre- 
pare His disciples for His death, and may we not 
reverently say, prepare Himself for it ? Is He 
transfigured before them that they might see His 
glory ? Moses and Elijah speak with Him of His 
exodus or death, and the Lord Himself speaks of His 
own suffering. Again and again He speaks of this, 
until the time approached. After His discourse on 
the Mount of Olives, about the destruction of Jeru- 
salem and the judgment of the world, He said, 
" Ye know that after two days is the Passover, and 
the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified." But 
in the afternoon of that same day, ere He left the 
Temple for the last time, some Gentiles, Greeks, not 
Grecians, desire to see Him. Then He saw in them 
the firstfruits of the millions of the Gentile world 
He came to bring into the one fold, and He rejoiced. 
" The hour is come, that the Son of man should be 
glorified." But thereupon the horror of great 
darkness came upon Him, and He said, " Now is 
My soul troubled ; and what shall I say? Father, save 
Me from this hour : yet for this cause came I unto 
this hour." * It was the willing offering of Himself 
in the Temple, as of the Lamb without spot or blem- 
ish, and the offering was accepted. Then, again, 
two days after, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the 
agony became intense, such as we cannot conceive. 
Yet it was voluntarily undergone. Do we not hear 

* St. John 12 : 23 sg. 



Il8 THE ATONEMENT. 

Him say,* " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray 
to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more 
than twelve legions of angels ? But how, then, 
shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must 
be?" 

Others have faced death calmly, why then was 
this ? Not only from intense knowledge of the 
physical pain and suffering, which to His perfect 
organization must have been far keener than to any 
other creature, but it was a horror of soul, which 
may be in some little degree conceived in the awful 
cry, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me?" God had proclaimed over man, " It is not 
good that man should be alone." This was not said 
of any other of His creatures. Again was it said, 
" Woe unto him that is alone." This must be to 
teach man that he cannot find happiness apart from 
God — he cannot really live apart from God. But in 
the moment of death the Lord Jesus as man was 
withdrawn from the consolations of Deity, we might 
almost think from the consciousness of the Presence 
of God. To man, hardened in sin, this dereliction 
must be awful indeed ; how far more intense in its 
bitterness must it have been to the Saviour. De- 
serted by His friends, alone, so far as human sym- 
pathy is concerned, He is also deserted of His 
Father ; the agony now is more than He can bear. 
The thought of its approach was so full of agony in 
the Garden of Gethsemane, that supernatural strength 
had to be infused by means of an angel, lest He 
should sink under it. But now on the Cross no 

* St. Matthew 26 : 53. 



THE ATONEMENT. II9 

strength is infused. It is more than He can bear. 
His heart is broken, and He dies from horror and 
grief of mind, voluntarily accepted, rather than 
from pain and exhaustion of body. 

Thus in some deeply mysterious way, which we 
cannot fully understand, God " made Him to be sin 
for us, Who knew no sin," and " Christ was once 
offered to bear the sins of many," as it had been 
prophesied of old that " the Lord laid on Him the 
iniquity of us all." " He is the propitiation for our 
sins." 

Thenceforward we hear in the Book of the Reve- 
lation the loving and thankful adoration of the repre- 
sentatives of creation, uttering a new song of praise 
to the Lamb, and to the Lamb slain — the Lamb as it 
had been slain. The continual hymn is ever going 
up, " Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain and hast 
redeemed us to God by Thy Blood." 

But, again, He is also the Priest who offers the sin- 
offering. This was foreshown when He is called 
the Firstborn. Mary " brought forth her Son, the 
Firstborn." The firstborn son was ever the priest 
of the family, until the whole tribe of Levi was taken 
instead of the firstborn. It was foretold when the 
Psalmist said, " Thou art a priest forever after the 
order of Melchisedec." The Epistle to the He- 
brews shows that for a perfect priest there was 
necessary not only perfect sympathy with his 
brethren, but that he should be " holy, harmless, 
undefined, separate from sinners, higher than the 
Heavens." To be such he must be divine. There- 
fore in His double character He could do for man 
what man alone could not do : He could offer with 



120 THE ATONEMENT. 

certainty of acceptance a perfect offering which 
could not be refused. 

" Himself the Victim and Himself the Priest." 

Into the Holy of Holies in Heaven has our High 
Priest entered, not with the blood of others, but 
with His own Blood, pleading the merits of that 
Avhich cannot be refused, and He ever liveth to make 
intercession for us. 

True is it from a human point of view that ' ' no man 
may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto 
God for him ; for it cost more to redeem their souls, 
so that he must let that alone forever/' At the 
same time the law had laid down, " One of his 
brethren may redeem him," and our Firstborn 
Brother has redeemed us. 

This, then, is the second figure of the saving char- 
acter of our Lord's Death ; it is spoken of as a Ran- 
som, a redemption, a purchasing the freedom of a 
slave who is held in bondage. The Lord Himself 
said that " the Son of man came to give His Life a 
ransom for many," and St. Paul said that the Saviour 
" gave Himself a ransom for all." This is difficult 
for us now fully to understand, and we may not 
press the idea in all its points any more than we can 
always press all points of analogy in our Lord's 
parables. In our Lord's day the idea of a ransom 
was perfectly familiar. Not only was money at 
times paid as the price of redemption, but sometimes 
one life was given to save another from death. We 
need not stay here to ask to whom the ransom was 
to be paid, lest we should be led into that strange 
opinion which was held for many centuries, that the 



THE ATONEMENT. 121 

ransom was paid to the devil. There is no need to 
ask to whom the ransom was to be paid for the life 
of an animal. " Every firstling of an ass thou shalt 
redeem with a lamb ; and if thou wilt not redeem it, 
then thou shalt break his neck." The ransom was 
to be paid to God by the hands of His priest. " The 
wages of sin is death," "death had passed on all 
men, for that all have sinned." But the death of 
Christ was "a ransom for many," that they need 
not be put to death. No man could ransom himself, 
still less his brother. But " God so loved the world 
that He gave His only Begotten Son," Who gave 
His life a ransom for many. 

The third figure employed in Scripture is that of 
Atonement, or Reconciliation. We read that " God 
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 
Here, then, has arisen a somewhat hasty attack on 
the language of our second article which has been 
borrowed from the Augsburg Confession. It says 
that Christ " truly suffered, was crucified, dead and 
buried to reconcile the Father to us." This lan- 
guage is said to be unscriptural ; that Scripture 
speaks of reconciling man to God, but not God to 
man. I need hardly remind you how Bishop Pear- 
son deals with this question in his treatise on the 
Creed, in expounding the Tenth Article.* It seems 
obvious that if sin alienates at all, it must alienate 
both parties ; and so far as we are sinners, God must 
be alienated from us ; since He cannot deny Himself, 
He cannot be other than He is ; He must " hate 
iniquity." Certainly the phrase of the Article can 

* See Appendix X. 



122 THE ATONEMENT. 

be traced to earliest times. In the Liturgy of St. 
Clement, so called, we have the expression more 
than once, " The Priest was pleased to be Himself 
the Sacrifice, the Shepherd a sheep, to appease Thee, 
His God and Father, to reconcile Thee to the world, 
and deliver all men from impending wrath ;" and 
again, " That all partakers may receive remission 
of their sins, thou, O Lord Almighty, being recon- 
ciled to them." Earlier than this St. Clement of 
Rome urged the Corinthians to implore God's par- 
don, " that He may show Himself propitious and be 
reconciled unto us." Indeed, the whole passage in 
the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians 
speaks as of two offended parties, God and man. 
God is represented as giving up His wrath and being 
reconciled in Christ, and then calling on man to 
give up his enmity and be reconciled to God. Hav- 
ing been a Sin-offering for us, and also a Ransom, 
Christ has become our Peace. 

Another word has been used in the endeavor to 
reach a fuller understanding of the Atonement, but 
it has no phrase to represent it in the Scriptures. 
It is that the Cross and Passion of Christ made a 
"full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and 
satisfaction for the"sins of the whole world. " The life 
of perfect obedience even unto death and the death 
are regarded as having fully satisfied the debt which 
man owed to God, which, like the ten thousand tal- 
ents of the parable, could not be paid by man. 

Hitherto we have spoken of the objective side of 
this deep mystery, and may God pardon the feeble 
imperfection of the words. But we must remember 
that there is a subjective side. True, Christ is our 



THE ATONEMENT. 1 23 

Representative, our Head. True, most true (thank 
God for it), " He hath made us accepted in the Be- 
loved." But we must not think that there is noth- 
ing required on our part. Meditating on the death 
of Christ, we must realize what a terrible thing sin is 
in God's sight, and we must endeavor more and 
more to hate sin as God hates it. This should lead 
us to consider Christ as obeying God's law as it 
affected sinful man, and as triumphing over tempta- 
tion and sin on his behalf and under his condition ; 
and then faith in His Blood becomes the power in 
which we can learn so to suffer and so to overcome. 
Then, indeed, will the imitation of Christ be our 
object and aim. We will more and more learn to 
live in the world as not of it, as He was in the 
world, yet not for one moment divided from Heaven. 
Our aim should be that we be " always bearing 
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that 
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our 
body."* The Apostle adds, " For we which live 
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, 
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in 
our mortal flesh." We should strive to be able to 
say with truth with the Apostle : " I am crucified 
with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in 
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who 
loved me, and gave Himsell for me." f We should 
learn to say with Ignatius, " My lust hath been 
crucified, and there is no fire of material longing in 
me, but only water living and speaking in me, say- 

* 2 Corinthians 4 : 10, 11. f Galatians 2 : 20. 



124 THE ATONEMENT. . 

ing within me, Come to the Father. I have no de- 
light in the food of corruption, or in the delights of 
this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the 
flesh of Christ, Who was of the seed of David ; and 
for a draught I desire His Blood, which is love incor- 
ruptible.'' * 

If devout consideration of the Passion of Christ 
effect in us a due apprehension of the character of 
sin, then shall we recognize the necessity of becom- 
ing and being dead unto sin and alive to righteous- 
ness, and then for us Christ will not have died in 
vain. 

This helps us to understand the language of the 
greatest saints of God. At times they use language 
in depreciation of self which seems strained and un- 
real. It is because they have entered more deeply 
into the mind of Christ and have learned to begin 
to hate sin as God hates sin. When one begins to 
realize what sin is in God's sight, then he feels that 
none can have so offended against light and know- 
ledge as he has himself, and in the ray of the sparkle 
of God's infinite holiness he is compelled to acknow- 
ledge himself the chief of sinners. 

The power of the Cross of Christ is ever fresh, it 
exhibits the righteousness and the love of God. It 
shows what a condemnation our sins have deserved, 
it reveals an extent of mercy we could not conceive. 
" I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." 

The cry of the Baptist in the text first drew dis- 
ciples after the Lord. He cried, " Behold the Lamb 
of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world, 

* Epistle to the Romans 7. 



THE ATONEMENT. 125 

and the two disciples heard him speak and they 
followed Him." 

God grant that we may follow Him ! If we do we 
shall be privileged to sing His praises in His Temple 
in Heaven, and this will be the burden of our song, 
" Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain, and hast 
redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. " " Wor- 
thy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and 
glory, and blessing." " Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the 
Throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." * 

* Revelation 5 : 9, 12, 13. 



LECTURE VI. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 



" As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name ; which 
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God."— St. John i : 12, 13. 

Christianity is the only religion which may be 
called a religion of the body. There was in other 
religions a persuasion that the soul was immortal, 
but Christianity alone taught the Resurrection of the 
flesh. In popular parlance Christianity is spoken 
of as a spiritual religion, and doubtless this is true, 
but it is the great exception in being the religion of 
the body. The starting-point for this is, as in all 
other things, the Incarnation. That is the key to all 
our mysteries, that is the solvent of all perplexities ; 
<k hold fast that thou hast" in this great doctrine, and 
all else falls into its place. 

Man was created with a complex nature so as to 
embrace somewhat of all creation, spiritual and 
material. He was created so as to form the focus, 
as it were, in which all the rays of creation centred. 
He was created as one being, and from that one 
being all mankind has been developed. The Incar- 
nation explains the reason of this. God the Son, God 
the Creator had prepared a creature who should be 
a microcosm, a summary of creation, that by taking 



THE SACRAMENTS. 12/ 

to Himself the nature of this creature, He might join 
to Himself all creation. " The Word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us." 

The Incarnation, then, must have communicated 
blessing to every part of creation, since Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, is in living union with all creation 
through man's nature. At His birth, therefore, 
though " He took not angels, but the seed of Abra- 
ham He took ;" when the Gospel was announced 
and the angel had proclaimed His birth, the innu- 
merable companies of angels at once were revealed 
praising God for His mercy ; for they, too, shared in 
the benefit of the union of God with His creature. 
Their spiritual perception had never been dimmed ; 
they became at once conscious of the commence- 
ment of the benefit, infinite in its possibilities of 
development. As has been pointed out, there is 
reason to believe that each angel is complete in him- 
self, each has his own peculiar nature, and it is also 
believed that the creation of angels has ceased — their 
number is complete. If this be so, we may under- 
stand that the communication of the benefit derived 
to the whole of creation at the Incarnation was made 
at once to the angels with unlimited possibilities of 
enlargement. But with mankind this was not so. 
Multitudes had passed away since the fall of Adam. 
Multitudes were yet unborn. How were they to 
participate in the blessedness of the Incarnation ? 

Man, as we have seen, was made by God, and 
man was made for God ; his only hope of real happi- 
ness is being in union with God. But the sin of 
Adam broke this union beyond the power of man to 
repair. Not only so, but the guilt of the sin by itself 



128 THE SACRAMENTS. 

prevented union, without some sacrifice or atone- 
ment being made. This,/ as we have seen, is mys- 
terious, but forgiveness is in itself mysterious. We 
may ask, How can the breach of a law be forgiven ? 
but we cannot readily receive an answer. Sufficient 
for us must the fact be that God has promised for- 
giveness, and that " the Son of man hath power on 
earth to forgive sins." The Atonement has been 
made, the Sacrifice has been offered, Redemption is 
complete, Satisfaction is perfect. The great barrier 
to union has been removed. But that which has 
been won for all must be applied individually. The 
union with God must be restored individually. 

In the first Adam the union with God was granted, 
but in such a manner as made it possible that the 
union might be broken if man did not keep the com- 
mandment. In the last Adam the union of God with 
man was so intimate, arising from the Personal 
union of God the Son with man's nature, that it was 
impossible that it should ever cease. We do not 
know, we need not ask, whether it would have been 
possible for Adam to have handed on this union to 
his children if he had not sinned. He did sin, and 
did not transmit the union he had himself lost, for 
he had it not ; therefore, at all events, he could not 
hand it on. But there is no question that " the last 
Adam was made a quickening Spirit," quickening, 
life-giving ; He could therefore extend His life of 
union to others. " I am come (He said) that they 
may have life, and have it more abundantly." * We 
must, therefore, ask how this blessing may be ex- 

* St. John 10 : 10. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 29 

tended to us ; we must ask, as did the first converts, 
" What must we do to be saved?" The answer 
will be the same as ever. The Creator requires in 
the first instance the subjection, the willing, free 
subjection of the will of the intelligent agent to His 
Will. This cannot be without a struggle, as indeed 
is seen in the Incarnate Saviour. His Human will 
was bowed to the Divine, and His Human soul was 
wrung in the conflict. 

We believe that " all the benefits of His Passion" 
and His Incarnation extend backward in time (as 
man understands time) to Adam, and forward till 
time shall be no more. There is not so much diffi- 
culty about understanding that living men can have 
the opportunity of choice granted to them, as about 
understanding how the preceding generations could 
have had this opportunity. Human reason (to speak 
reverently) forbids us to believe, nay revolts from, 
the arbitrary decree which Calvinism and Moham- 
medanism pretend. The two are certainly similar. 
' When God, so runs the Moslem tradition — I had 
better said the blasphemy — resolved to create the 
human race He took into His Hands a mass of 
earth, the same whence all mankind were to be 
formed, and in which they after a manner pre- 
existed ; and having then divided the clod into two 
equal portions, He threw the one half into hell, say- 
ing, ' these to eternal fire, and I care not ;' and pro- 
jected the other half into Heaven, adding, ' and 
these to Paradise, and I care not.' " Human mo- 
rality revolts against such blasphemy, and we turn 
with unutterable relief and adoring gratitude to the 
words of our Creator, " God so loved the world that 
9 



130 THE SACRAMENTS. 

He gave His only Begotten Son, that all that believe 
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
But how can the dead " believe in Him of Whom 
they have not heard ?" 

First, then, we may say that they had the oppor- 
tunity, when alive, of believing by faith on Him 
Who was to come. By faith " Abraham rejoiced to 
see the Lord's day, and saw it, and was glad." In 
manifold ways, of which we know nothing, there 
must have been opportunities granted for faith in 
" Plim that is coming. " Thus Noah was a preacher 
of righteousness, and the long and careful preparation 
of the ark, spreading over one hundred and twenty 
years, was in itself a practical sermon of great value, 
and must have produced an effect to which, as we 
shall see, St. Peter refers. 

But more than this. Doubtless all will be struck 
with the great stress laid upon our Lord's death in 
the Apostles' Creed. The absolute reality of that 
death is emphasized remarkably. "He suffered 
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, 
He descended into hell." The infinite importance 
of His Resurrection as well as of His Death gives a 
reason for this. To exhibit the reality of the separa- 
tion of His soul from His body (in which death 
natural consists), it is said that as to His body He 
was buried in the sepulchre ; as to His invisible 
soul and spirit He descended to the place of de- 
parted spirits. This latter truth is regarded by our 
Church of such importance that it is made the sub- 
ject of a separate Article ; and though, when the 
Articles were finally issued, a clause of the Article 
was omitted to suit some minds, yet the English 



THE SACRAMENTS. 131 

Church in 1 549 altered the Epistle for Easter Eve, 
and in 1552 altered the first lesson for Matins of that 
day in a way which showed her own mind. Before 
1549 the Epistle was the same as we now have for 
Easter Day, but since that day the great declaration 
of St. Peter about the preaching- to the spirits in 
prison has been the Epistle, and since 1552 the Old 
Testament lesson for Matins has been the ninth 
chapter of Zechariah, where we read, " As for thee 
also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth 
thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. 
Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." 
Here, as appropriate to the day when the Sacred 
body of the Lord kept Sabbath in the tomb, and 
His spirit was active for the good of souls in the 
place of departed spirits, the prophecy is read speak- 
ing of His rescue of the prisoners of hope, the spirits 
in prison, as St. Peter says. 

There can be little doubt about the meaning of the 
passage in St. Peter. The more the accuracy of 
Greek grammar is acknowledged the more clearly is 
it seen that St. Peter says that the spirit of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, set free by death from His sacred 
body, at once became more active (" quickened in 
the sphere of His spirit"), and went and heralded 
forth His Gospel " to the spirits in prison ; which 
were sometime disobedient, when once the long- 
suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." * 
This distinctly implies that some, at least, of those 
who were disobedient in the days of Noah, and were 
visited by the temporal punishment of the flood, had 

* 1 St. Peter 3 : 18-20. 



132 THE SACRAMENTS. 

an opportunity of listening to, and therefore, we 
should think, of profiting by the preaching of the 
Gospel. 

St. Irenaeus, therefore, could say,* " For this 
reason also the Lord descended into the lower parts 
of the earth, preaching the Gospel of His coming to 
them also, since remission of sins was manifested for 
those that believe on Him." Tertullian also could 
say, with that excellent terseness which is his char- 
acteristic, " He did not ascend to Heaven before He 
descended to the lower parts of the earth, that He 
might there make the patriarchs and prophets par- 
takers of Himself." f As has been said elsewhere, 
' The Lord having been born the first begotten 
of the dead, and receiving into His bosom the an- 
cient fathers, regenerated them into the life of God." 
The two statements may well be taken to explain 
one the other. He regenerated them by making 
them partakers of Himself, and this in some mysteri- 
ous way in connection with His descent into Hades. 

Thus, then, we may believe that He made the dis- 
embodied spirits partakers of the salvation procured 
for them as for us. But for those still in the body 
there was a different scheme whereby the Incarna- 
tion was to be extended to the individual. 

Here, then, we should naturally expect that as 
Christianity is a religion of the body as well as of 
the soul and spirit, affecting and consecrating the 
whole of man's nature, " ourselves, our souls and 
bodies," so there should be some external means of 
grace affecting the body, and through it the soul and 

* Adv. Haer., IV., xxvii. 2. f " De Anima," lv. 



THE SACRAMENTS. I33 

spirit which inhabit the body, and at present derive 
their knowledge through the body. Here on earth 
if one spirit of a man desires to communicate with 
another it is by means of the body. If a man wishes 
to learn God's Word and His Will, it is ordinarily by 
means of the body ; he either reads it as printed or 
written, or hears it read in his ears. It is ordinarily 
a law of God (so far as we can recognize law) to 
work in the visible world by visible means, and to 
teach man about spiritual and invisible things by 
means of bodily and visible things with which he is 
cognizant. It is an erroneous and false view which 
endeavors to minimize the importance of the body 
and to depreciate it. The fact that God the Son 
took to Himself a body and shrouded His glory 
behind a veil of matter should teach .us the impor- 
tance of matter. The Incarnation was termed a sac- 
rament by the ancient Fathers, and similarly those 
sacred and special means whereby the Incarnation 
is extended and applied to the individual man were 
also called sacraments. 

The Incarnation was not merely for man's sake, it 
was not an accommodation to man's comprehension, 
that man might appreciate and understand what God 
was doing for him. It was also to elevate and con- 
secrate the nature He had assumed ; as St. Athana- 
sius loved to say, " God became man that men might 
become gods." By the Incarnation were united 
God and man, Heaven and earth. In pursuance of 
this glorious design, the Lord Jesus instituted the 
sacred means of grace which we call sacraments, 
which have by His appointment a Heavenly and 
spiritual part, and also an earthly and visible part ; 



134 THE SACRAMENTS. 

the invisible and spiritual part being attached to and 
conveyed by the visible and material part in some 
mysterious manner, in consequence of His appoint- 
ment. 

Here, too, we may observe that in a remarkable 
manner similar errors show themselves with respect 
to the sacraments as had been displayed with re- 
spect to the Incarnation. Eutyches had said that 
the human nature had been so absorbed and assimi- 
lated into the Divine, that it had become lost as a 
drop of vinegar would be in the ocean. So that the 
Eutychian heresy denied practically the separate 
existence of the two natures. Similarly, in respect, 
at least, of one of the sacraments, the outward part 
was said by some erroneous teaching to have been 
completely annihilated by the inward and spiritual 
part. Theodoret adduces the analogy of the sacra- 
ment of the Holy Eucharist to make plain the teach- 
ing about the truth of the Incarnation. It has been 
also thought that the heresy of Nestorius has its 
counterpart in the error of those who " say that the 
sacramental action typifies in the external order a 
spiritual process taking place pari passu in the un- 
seen/' 

The sacraments, then, derive their force solely 
from the institution of the Saviour Himself, or of 
His Apostles under His direction and the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost. No man can invent a sacrament 
for himself ; none has the least authority to say this 
or that ceremony shall be the means of bestowing 
grace, unless there be scriptural authority for the 
same. Otherwise we may have the same mistake 
that was made by Micah when he engaged the de- 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 35 

scendant of Moses as his chaplain, " Now know I 
that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a 
Levite to my priest." Some seem to say, " Now 
all is right, for I have a priest, or deacon, for my 
bishop." 

With respect to the number of the sacraments 
there need not be much serious controversy. The 
number often depends upon the meaning attached 
to the word, which was defined with more and 
more accuracy as the centuries of Christian thought 
passed away. The Greeks called the sacred instru- 
ment or institution a ''mystery," w r hich the Latins 
translated " sacrament." The Latin word was orig- 
inally a legal term for the security or caution money 
paid into court by the parties to a suit. Thence it be- 
came a military term, first for the preliminary en- 
gagement for service and then for the oath which 
bound the soldier to his standard. From this the 
word was pressed into the service of Christianity as 
meaning any matter of deep teaching, and then as 
we commonly understand it in the present day. 

If, then, we understand the word in the first 
Christian sense of mystery, the number of sacraments 
is practically unlimited. Thus when St. Jerome 
says of the Book of Revelation that " the very order 
in which the words occur is itself a sacrament : , " and 
when St. Augustine says that the deluge in the time 
of Noah was a sacrament, they use the term in its 
widest sense. The question of the meaning of the 
word is so carefully explained in the second Book of 
Homilies of the Church of England, that the whole 
passage is here given. 

" Now you shall hear how many sacraments there 



136 THE SACRAMENTS. 

be, that were instituted by our Saviour Christ, and 
are to be continued, and received of every Christian 
in due time and order, and for such purpose as our 
Saviour Christ willed them to be received. And as 
for the number of them, if they should be considered 
according to the exact signification of a sacrament — 
namely, for the visible signs, expressly commanded 
in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the 
promise of free forgiveness of our sin, and of our 
holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two— 
namely, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. For 
although Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness 
of sin, yet by the express word of the New Testa- 
ment it hath not this promise annexed and tied to 
the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For 
this visible sign (I mean laying on of hands) is not 
expressly commanded in the New Testament to be 
used in Absolution, as the visible signs in Baptism 
and the Lord's Supper are ; and therefore Absolution 
is no such sacrament as Baptism and the Communion 
are. And though the ordering of ministers hath his 
visible sign and promise, yet it lacks the promise of 
remission of sin, as all other sacraments beside the two 
above-named do. Therefore neither it nor any 
other sacrament else be such sacraments as Bap- 
tism and the Communion are. But in a general ac- 
ception, the name of a sacrament may be attributed 
to anything whereby a holy thing is signified. In 
which understanding of the word the ancient writers 
have given this name not only to the other five, 
commonly of late years taken and used for the sup- 
plying the number of the seven sacraments, but also 
to divers and sundry other ceremonies, as to oil, 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 37 

washing of feet, and such like, not meaning thereby 
to repute them as sacraments in the same signifi- 
cation that the two forenamed sacraments are." 

A sacrament, then, generally speaking, is an out- 
ward and sensible token of some inward and deeper 
meaning or grace to be conveyed thereby. But in 
the case of the two " sacraments of the Gospel," as 
they are called, in the narrowest and strictest sense 
as defined by the English Church, they are " out- 
ward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual 
grace, ordained by Christ Himself as a means whereby 
we receive the same inward grace, and a pledge to 
assure us that we do receive it and also as generally, 
i.e., universally, necessary to salvation." 

Bishop Jeremy Taylor* rightly, therefore, calls 
one of them the " extension of the Incarnation," and 
as the glorious Divine nature of the Incarnate Lord 
was shrouded and veiled in the flesh, and yet " the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God was in 
the face of Jesus Christ," in so marvellously mys- 
terious a manner that He could say, " He that hath 
seen Me hath seen the Father," so in the sacraments 
the inward part or thing signified is (as says the 
homily) ''annexed and tied to the visible sign" in 
such a manner that when the visible sign is applied 
to the body, the soul is in touch with the inward 
grace. Well indeed then must we believe that 
Christianity is a religion of the body ; and well did 
Tertullian draw special attention to this in his treatise 
on the Resurrection of the flesh. 

* " The Fathers by an elegant expression called the blessed sacra- 
ment the extension of the Incarnation" (Works, ed. Eden, vol. 
viii., p. 23). 



I38 THE SACRAMENTS. 

" Let us now consider (he writes*), in respect of 
the peculiar character of Christianity, how great a 
privilege in God's sight is given to this paltry and 
squalid substance, though it might be enough to say 
that no soul could achieve salvation unless it believed 
while it was in the flesh — to such an extent does sal- 
vation hinge on the flesh — of which salvation, when 
the soul is elected to God's Church, the flesh it is 
which enables the soul to be elected. Undoubtedly 
the flesh is washed that the soul may be cleansed ; 
the flesh is anointed that the soul may be conse- 
crated ; the flesh is sealed that the soul may be forti- 
fied ; the flesh is shadowed by the imposition of hand 
that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit ; the 
flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ that the 
soul may be well nourished on God." 

But, as has been said, the whole virtue of the sac- 
raments is derived from God, because of the institu- 
tion by Christ Himself. He instituted them and 
commanded them to be continued, and ordained that 
they should be ministered by the hands of men. 
Hence we must be well assured that the validity of 
the sacraments does not depend upon the piety of 
the minister. The unworthiness of the minister can- 
not in any way hinder the effect of the sacrament in 
itself ; for they are " effectual because of Christ's in- 
stitution and promise, although they be ministered 
by evil men." If this were not so, St. Augustine 
argues, man's trust in God alone would be weakened, 
and trust in the worthiness of man as the minister 

* " De Resurrectione Carnis," viii., ed. Oehler, Tom. II., p. 478 ; 
ed. Rigalt, Paris, 1675, p. 330. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 39 

would take its place. Nor, again, does the inward 
and spiritual grace in the sacrament depend upon 
the faith or spiritual understanding of the receiver. 
The grace offered is ever the same ; this does not de- 
pend upon the intellectual or spiritual effort of the 
receiver. But the benefit received need not neces- 
sarily be the same to all, for in some there may be 
interposed an obstacle from unrepented sin, which 
may prevent or retard the spiritual assimilation of 
the grace offered. 

The first requisite for the salvation of the indi- 
vidual man is union with God. This can only be 
through the Incarnate Lord. The initial sacrament 
whereby this union is effected is Baptism. All the 
promises of the New Testament are to those who 
are "in Christ," "in the Lord." Baptism is the 
sacrament whereby we are " made members of 
Christ, children of God, and heirs of Heaven;" in 
and by this sacrament we become incorporated into 
Christ, even married to Him, " members of His 
body, of His flesh, and His bones." * 

Hence we find that great importance is attached 
to this in the teaching of the Lord and His Apostles. f 
It was the command given during the Great Forty 
Days of the sojourn upon earth of the Risen Lord, 
" Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
Name ol the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost." Therefore when the three thousand who 
had been converted on the day of Pentecost by St. 
Peter's sermon cried out, " What shall we do ?" the 
answer came at once to them — and we must take it to 

* Ephesians 5 : 30. \ See Appendix Y. 



140 THE SACRAMENTS. 

ourselves — " Repent and be baptized, every one of 
you," and they were then and there baptized, all of 
them. This was what Ananias said to Saul, who 
had been converted, " Arise, and be baptized, and 
wash away thy sins." So said St. Paul, " As many 
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put 
on Christ."* 

Looking back into the history of God's dealings 
with His creatures, we see intimations of this. At 
the first regeneration of the world the Holy Spirit 
" sat brooding" like a dove over the waters, and the 
first evidence of life that science has found is sub- 
marine, f St. Peter points out that the deluge in 
the time of Noah is a type of Baptism ; so, too, the 
passage of the Red Sea, when the Israel of God was 
saved and their enemies were drowned ; so, too, the 
passage of the Jordan and the cleansing of Naaman. 
All were typical of Baptism, as was also the great 
brazen laver in the Tabernacle, where the priests 
washed before approaching their ministry. 

If we seek for prophecies, they abound every- 
where. Isaiah J speaks of 'V drawing water with joy 
from the wells of salvation." Jeremiah § cries, " O 
Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that 
thou mayest be saved." Ezekiei || tells of the 
water flowing from the house of God, '* And every- 
thing shall live whither the river cometh." Joel,T 
too, had said, "A fountain shall come forth of the 
house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of 
Shittim." Zechariah ** again said, "In that day 

* Galatians 3 : 27. f See Appendix Z. \ Isaiah 12 : 3. 

§ Jeremiah 4 : 14. || Ezekiei 47 : 1, 9. ^f Joel 3 : 18. 

** Zechariah 13 : 1. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 141 

there shall be a fountain opened to the house of 
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin 
and for uncleanness. " 

But though there were types and prophecies, 
there was no actual rite of baptism until the fore- 
runner, John, introduced it, and therefore became 
known, by the special peculiarity of his ministry, as 
"the Baptist." It is true that after his time the 
Jews introduced a baptism in addition to circum- 
cision for their converted proselytes, but there is no 
evidence that such a ceremony existed before his 
time. When in the Book of Judith we read of Achior 
being joined to the house of Israel there is no word 
of baptism. " When Achior had seen all that the 
God of Israel had done, he believed in God greatly, 
and circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and was 
joined unto the house of Israel unto this day."* 
The whole tone of the Apocryphal history makes it 
most probable that if the ceremony of baptism were 
in use then as part of the reception of a proselyte, 
it would have been mentioned. Again, Josephus 
makes no mention of it in this connection, and the 
first reference we find is considerably posterior to 
John the Baptizer. 

Our Blessed Lord condescended, as our Represent- 
ative, to submit to this external rite of repentance ; 
though He had nothing to repent of, yet "it be- 
came" Him to do all that one of His time and race 
should have done. And by His Baptism He insti- 
tuted once and forever the sacrament of Baptism, 
making it instinct with grace and vivifying power. 

* Judith 14 : 10. See Appendix AA. 



142 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Rightly, therefore, do we acknowledge that Al- 
mighty God, " by the Baptism of His Well beloved 
Son in the River Jordan, did sanctify the element of 
water to the mystical washing away of sin." 

In modern times a question has been raised about 
the mode of baptism, and on this continent a large 
number have separated from the Church, under the 
impression that no baptism is valid that does not 
cause the total submersion of the subject in water. 
The two things absolutely necessary to valid bap- 
tism are the use of water and the use of the words 
of institution. The mode of the application of water 
has not been prescribed. In the lately discovered 
tract,* dating from the beginning of the second cen- 
tury (if not from the end of the first), this is clearly 
seen. The passage is as follows : " Concerning 
baptism ; baptize thus : having said all this before- 
hand, baptize in running water, In the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
But if you have not running water, baptize in other 
water ; if you cannot in cold water, then in warm. 
But if you have not either, pour water thrice upon 
the head." This is much like the rubric of our 
Church, "it shall suffice to pour water;" for the 
Church does not sanction sprinkling. 

For the minister of this all-important sacrament, 
while it is better to have a priest of the Church, 
yet " Baptism by any man in case of necessity was 
the voice of the whole world heretofore, "f This is 
clearly seen in the controversy in Africa, where St. 



* " The Teaching of the Apostles," ch. vii. 
f Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," V., lxi., § 3. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 143 

Cyprian for a time prevailed on the African bishops 
to follow him in a deviation from the tradition of the 
Church in ignoring heretical baptism ; but as St. 
Augustine pointed out, the deviation was wrong and 
was set straight by reverting to the ancient custom 
of the Church without the intervention of a council. 
It was held that in this necessary sacrament it was 
Christ Himself that really gave the inward grace, 
whoever was the ministerial agent to pour water and 
say the words. 

In and by Baptism two great and glorious gifts 
are bestowed, regeneration and remission of sins. 
These are mentioned in the Confirmation prayer, 
;< Thou hast vouchsafed to regenerate these Thy 
servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast 
given unto them forgiveness of all their sins." * 
Baptism is not only a laver, or washing, it is the 
" washing of regeneration." The Church always 
understood for fifteen hundred years that our Lord's 
words to Nicodemus were of Holy Baptism : " Ex- 
cept a man be born again of water and the Holy 
Ghost, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 
Our service is speaking the truth of God when it 
says that we are " by Baptism regenerate," and that 
we are by Baptism " made children of God." This, 
too, " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
of the will of man, but of God." Our first genera- 
tion or birth was not dependent upon our own will 
or our own consciousness ; our regeneration or sec- 
ond birth, the Apostle points out, is equally indepen- 
dent of our own will, but in this case it is the will 

* See Appendix BB. 



144 THE SACRAMENTS. 

and act of God alone. Therefore, as the angels are 
called sons of God because each owes his being and 
existence to God alone, without the intervention ot 
any other, so the Apostle calls us sons of God, be- 
cause it is by God's will and act alone (though not 
ordinarily independent of Baptism) that we are re- 
generate and born anew. 

Thus, though it is perfectly true that, as St. Ire- 
naeus has said,* " What we lost in Adam is restored 
in Christ," yet we have much more privilege than 
Adam had. We are sons of God, not only in the 
same sense that, all created beings may be so called, 
but in the far higher sense of special "adoption," 
whereby our Blessed Saviour has become " the first- 
born among many brethren." We hereby become, 
as St. Peter says, " partakers of the Divine nature," 
so that, as St. Athanasius loved to say, " God be- 
came man, that we men might be deified." " Be- 
loved (said the Apostle), nozv are we the sons of God ;" 
now, that is in this present world, " What manner of 
love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should 
be called the sons of God." f 

The second glorious gift is " forgiveness of sins." 
The precious, inestimable blessing of forgiveness, 
Avon for all by the atoning blood of Christ, is applied 
to each primarily in and by Baptism. " Be baptized 
every one of you for the remission of sins," said St. 
Peter. £ " Arise and be baptized and wash away 
thy sins," said Ananias. § It is intimately connected 
with regeneration, as we say in prayer, " Grant that 



* Adv. Haer. III., xviii., § i, Paris, 1710, p. 209. 

f 1 St. John 3 : i, 2. , % Acts 2 : 38. § Acts 22 : 16. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 145 

this child coming- to Thy Holy Baptism may receive 
remission of sins by spiritual regeneration. ' ' Regener- 
ation were impossible (to speak humanly) unless for- 
giveness were either simultaneous or antecedent. 
If Baptism conveys the glorious privilege of regener- 
ation, if at that time by the will of God we are made 
the sons of God, there must be at the same time for- 
giveness. We say, therefore, in our Creed, " I ac- 
knowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins." 
Hence the continual reference to the washing and 
so cleansing power of Baptism. 

Here, then, though we may not tell beforehand 
what will be the outward means of grace, and 
though this depends wholly upon the will and insti- 
tution of God, yet after the institution we may see 
how appropriate the outward means are to the in- 
ward grace. Thus as water is the natural means of 
cleansing the body, so it is taken as the symbol of 
the cleansing the soul ; and we have the phrases 
"wash away thy sins," "that your sins may be 
blotted out,"* by anointing, which have reference 
to the water of Baptism. 

Hence, too, we may see that the error which 
would restrict Baptism to adult age has no founda- 
tion in Scripture or the meaning of the sacrament. 
Life spiritual is an absolutely free gift, as free as life 
natural. As life natural does not depend upon 
the will of the recipient, so life spiritual does not 
depend upon the will of the recipient. A confused 
opinion does not distinguish between conversion, 
which is a conscious act of the will, and regenera- 

* Acts 3 : 19. 
10 



I46 THE SACRAMENTS. 

tion, which ordinarily is not accompanied by con- 
sciousness, and is wholly independent of the will of 
man. " They are born, not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
Whether we regard the gift of spiritual life or the 
gift of cleansing, it is surely impossible to say that 
infants are not fit subjects for Baptism. Had not 
infants been perfectly capable of grace, the Lord 
would not have blessed them ; the rebuke of those 
who brought the infants came from the disciples 
whose understandings had not been opened, and 
caused the Lord's displeasure. We can well in- 
deed enter into the feelings of those modern con- 
verts from heathenism who repudiated the so-called 
Baptist community (though by their means they had 
been brought to the knowledge of Christ) because 
their children were denied admission to the same 
covenant with God as themselves. They repudiated 
teaching which excluded their families from the 
Church of God. 

From the account of the conversion and Baptism 
of the Samaritans by the Deacon Philip,* we learn 
that Baptism itself was incomplete in its full privilege 
without the laying on of Apostolic hands. Before 
the Apostles came down we read " they were only 
baptized," or more exactly, as the Greek is more 
particular, " they were only in the state of having 
been baptized ;" the very phrase implies that this 
alone did not admit them to the full privilege of 
membership in the Church. They had been ad- 
vanced one stage, there was another glorious privi- 

* Acts 8 : 12-17. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 147 

lege in store for them, " the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
The communication of this gift followed upon re- 
generation, but was a separate act. As the Apostle 
said, " Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the 
Spirit of His Son into your hearts." * The bestowal 
of this gift was subsequent to the gift of adoption. 
This, too, was seen in the Baptism of the Lord, as 
the early Christian writers rejoiced to trace. Thus 
the African Bishop Optatus, about 370 A.D., wrote : 
" The Lord descended into the water, not that there 
was anything in God that required cleansing, but 
that water must precede the oil that was to come on 
Him, that He might initiate, and ordain, and com- 
plete the mysteries of Baptism. When He had been 
bathed in the hands of John, the order of the mys- 
tery followed, and the Father completed what the 
Son had prayed for and the Spirit had announced. 
The Heaven was opened, the Father anointed ; im- 
mediately the oil of the Spirit descended in the shape 
of a Dove and settled on His Head, and anointed 
Him with oil, and from that time He began to be 
called Christ or the Anointed One, because He was 
then anointed by God the Father. And lest He 
should seem to lack the laying on of hands, the Voice 
of God was heard from the cloud, ' This is My be- 
loved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.' " f Simi- 
larly St. Hilary of Poitiers, some twenty years 

* Galatians 4 : 6. 

f Optati, Opera, Paris, 1700 a.d., p. 75. St. Athanasius writes, 
" He, as man, was anointed with the Holy Ghost that He might 
make us an habitation of the Spirit, as well as partakers of His resur- 
rection and exaltation." (Orat. I., c. Arianos, § 46. Opera Patavii, 
1777, Tom. I., p. 355 D.) 



148 THE SACRAMENTS. 

before, wrote : " In Him, too, the order of the 
Heavenly mystery is expressed. For when He had 
been baptized the doors of Heaven were opened, the 
Holy Spirit is sent out, and recognized in the shape 
of a visible Dove, and He is sprinkled with the unc- 
tion of His Father's affection. Then the Voice from 
Heaven says thus, - Thou art My Son, this day have 
I begotten Thee.' The Son of God is pointed out 
oy hearing and seeing ; and to a people unbelieving 
and disobedient to the prophets there is sent a testi- 
mony from their Lord both of sight and voice. And 
at the same time from these things which were com- 
pleted in Christ we may acknowledge that, after the 
washing of water the Holy Spirit flies down upon 
us from the gates of Heaven, and we are anointed 
with the unction of Heavenly glory and are made 
children of God by the adoption of the Father's 
Voice, since by the very effects of the things the 
Truth has prefigured the likeness of the sacrament 
so arranged for us."* The laying on of hands, 
therefore, was ever spoken of as the "perfection" 
or completion of Baptism, and should be regarded 
as part and parcel of that sacrament. Bishop Jeremy 
Taylor in consequence calls it " The sacramental 
consummation of our regeneration in Christ." t 

The name by which this complementary rite is 
known in the West rather implies that it completes 
the sacrament of Baptism. The word " Confirma- 
tion" has gradually superseded all others, and 
though the origin of the word seems uncertain, yet 

* On St. Matthew, ch. ii., Opera Verona, 1730, Tom. I., col. 676. 
f " Of Confirmation," i. 2, ed. Eden, vol. v., 626. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 49 

it probably has reference to the connection with 
Baptism. Tertullian uses the word in this sense, 
though not as a name for this rite, which was known 
in his day rather as "the laying- on of hands," or 
unction. " How great is the grace of water (he 
says*), in the sight of God and His Christ, for the 
confirmation of Baptism." The word as a name for 
the rite is found in the fifth century at the first Coun- 
cil of Orange, " If one from any accident has not 
been anointed in his Baptism, the bishop must be 
informed of this at his Confirmation," though St. Am- 
brose seemingly uses the verb to confirm in a like sense. 

There is no doubt that in the eighth and ninth 
centuries the word confirm is used of the completion 
of a sacrament. Thus in the Ordo Romanus there is 
continual reference to the confirmation of those who 
have received the species of Bread with the Chalice. 
The most striking passage is perhaps the following, 
" Taking the chalice, the archdeacon confirms with 
the Blood of the Lord all those whom the bishop 
shall have communicated with the Body of the 
Lord." f I n a- similar meaning Rhabanus Maurus, a 
century later, speaking of the admission of a cate- 
chumen into the Church by Baptism, laying on of 
hands, and Communion,;): says : " Next every pre- 
ceding sacrament is confirmed in him by the Body 
and Blood of the Lord. 5 ' 

This is the more striking since St. Isidore of 
Seville, in the seventh century, seems to have re- 
garded Confirmation as having the same relation to 

* De Baptismo, ix. f Hittorpius, Romse, 1591, p. 14. 

% Hittorpius, Romse, 1591, p. 274 (Rabanus de Inst. Clericorum, 
cap. 29). 



150 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Baptism as the chalice had to the paten ; there were 
either two or four sacraments, in his estimation. He 
says:* "The sacraments are Baptism and Chrism, 
the Body and Blood of Christ, which are called 
sacraments because, under the veil of corporal things, 
the divine virtue secretly works the saving influence 
of the same sacraments. " He couples the former two 
together and the latter two, as if they had a similar 
relation one to other, and neither of each couple 
was complete without its " Confirmation." f 

In the Eastern Church the rite is known as 
" Chrism," or sometimes as " The Seal." It would 
seem likely that the word "seal" was originally used 
of the outward and visible sign of an inward grace or 
blessing. Thus St. Paul uses the word of the out- 
ward sign of the inward faith of Abraham, " He re- 
ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of the right- 
eousness of the faith which he had yet being uncir- 
cumcised." In the earliest Christian writings — e.g., 
Hermas, we find the phrase " the seal is the water," 
and though sometimes the word is used in such a 
manner that Baptism is meant, it is nowhere said 
" the seal is Baptism." Soon the word '* seal " be- 
came appropriated to the sign of the cross, which 
the faithful Christian made on every occasion, as an 
outward token of an inward blessing. As in the rite 
of Confirmation or the laying on of hands, the chrism 
was applied in the form of a cross with the words, 
" The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost," the whole 

* Originum, Lib. VI , cap. 19 Opera Coloniae, 1617, p. 52 A. 

f Compare the saying of Tertullian, " How great is the blessedness 
of that marriage which the Church cements, the oblation confirms" 
I" Ad Uxorem," II. viii.) 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 5 I 

rite gradually became known by the name of the 
seal. It is rather remarkable that in the English and 
American Church the sign of the cross should be 
retained in Baptism (when probably it is a relic of 
Confirmation) and be omitted in the service for Con- 
firmation itself. This is a surviving symptom prob- 
ably of the time when Confirmation was administered 
immediately after Baptism. The shortness of the 
service is another surviving token that it is only part 
of a longer service, which also may be seen from the 
fact that until the last review in 1661 the Lord's 
Prayer was not included in the service. This could 
not have been left out had it been intended to be a 
separate service for a separate rite. 

Other proofs there are that Confirmation is only 
a part of the complete sacrament of Baptism. For 
nine centuries Baptism was not allowed (except in 
danger of death) to be administered at other times 
than at Easter and Pentecost."* Then catechumens 
were baptized at the cathedral church in the pres- 
ence of the Bishop, who at once confirmed them. 
At present the rubric of the English Church directs 
that no adult Baptism should take place without the 
Bishop being informed. One object is that the 
Baptism do not take place hurriedly without suffi- 
cient preparation ; but another doubtless is that the 
Bishop may appoint a time for the Baptism, that he 
may be present and confirm at once. 

In the Eastern Church Confirmation is ministered 
by priests with chrism or unction specially conse- 
crated by Bishops. 

* See Appendix BB*. 



152 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Neither Baptism nor Confirmation may be re- 
peated. Invalid baptism, that is, ministered without 
water or without the proper form of words, is not 
Baptism ; and if it be found that one have been so 
baptized, valid Baptism must be administered. Con- 
firmation cannot be ministered outside the Catholic 
Church. 

" I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of 
sins," this conveys the promise of pardon for post- 
baptismal sin ; for as our Prayer Book says, it is an 
" everlasting benediction of Heavenly washing." 
On repentance pardon is assured, and it is applied to 
the penitent by the absolution of the priest, " who 
hath received power and commandment to declare 
and pronounce to God's people, being penitent, the 
absolution and remission of their sins." No new 
gift is conferred thereby, but the pardon guaranteed 
is an extension of the forgiveness promised at Bap- 
tism. 

It is remarkable to observe that when in the 
second Prayer Book of Edward VI. a Confession and 
Absolution were introduced at the beginning of 
Matins and Evensong, they are " constructed in that 
form which would most completely adapt them for 
superseding in all ordinary cases private confession 
and absolution." Canon Cooke well says : 4< An ex- 
amination of the Confession will show that it is 
framed with the closest regard to the old definitions 
of mortal sin, and that it differs in this respect from 
the ancient Confession at Prime and Compline, 
which were considered to refer to venial sins alone." 
The Absolution is rather framed on the model of 
that in use in the Greek Church. Both assert the 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 53 

absolving power to be God's, conveyed through the 
priest ; both insist on the necessity of true repentance 
in the sinner ; both have petitions that repentance 
may be produced in the sinner and absolution granted 
by God. With respect to the form of absolution, 
the most ancient forms of sacerdotal absolution were 
precatory, prayer to God for pardon to be granted 
to the penitent. It has been said of the forms of 
ordination, and the remark is true of all similar utter- 
ances of ministerial power : " The Fathers used pre- 
catory forms, lest the gift should appear to proceed 
from any but God ; the later practice of the West 
added imperative forms, lest it should appear that 
the prayer of any person would suffice for obtaining 
the gift."* 

There are, then, in the Liturgy of the Church of 
England three forms of Absolution gradually nar- 
rowing in personal application, and gradually becom- 
ing more imperative and authoritative. Though one 
has been omitted in the American Church, those that 
remain are equally valid. As absolution is not be- 
stowed without confession, so before each Absolu- 
tion there is a Confession, in general terms indeed, 
but in such carefully worded phrases that each indi- 
vidual may include his own sin and his own burden. 
In the case of private and particular confession the 
Absolution becomes more direct and imperative. 
But, as the homilies say, " though Absolution hath 
promise of forgiveness of sin, yet by the express 
word of the New Testament it hath not this promise 
annexed and tied to the visible sign, which is impo- 

* See Appendix CC. 



154 THE SACRAMENTS. 

sition of hands." Nor has there ever been any ex- 
press form of words wherein the grace is conveyed 
or conferred. But Absolution is only granted after 
Confession. " I said I will confess my sins unto the 
Lord ; and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my 
sin." Deeply mysterious doubtless all forgiveness 
is, but there is no grace more surely promised than 
this ; there is no grace more yearned after by the 
repentant sinner ; there is none, it may be, for which 
the penitent requires greater assurance. The pre- 
cious declaration of our Lord is remarkable in its 
fulness : " That ye may know that the Son of Man 
hath power on earth to forgive sins (then saith He to 
the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed and 
go unto thine house." Here in the Greek original 
each word is the same in each of the three Synoptic 
Gospels, and each word is of deepest import, as we 
should expect. The Lord does not deny that God 
alone has absolute and paramount power and right 
to forgive sins. In the case in question He does not 
absolve as God, but as Man ; therefore he uses a word 
for delegated power, not absolute, inherent power, 
but delegated power, as it were, license : " The Son 
of Man hath power delegated to Him on earth to for- 
give sins." * Then after His Resurrection He said 
again, "All delegated power is given unto Me in 
Heaven and upon earth," and lest it should be 
thought that the power was removed from earth at 
the Ascension, He said further, " Lo ! I am with you 
all the days, even unto the end of the world." He is 
with His properly authenticated ministers until the 

* See Appendix DD. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 55 

end of time. As St. John records the Lord's words, 
" As My Father hath sent Me, even so am I sending 
you," the Mission of Christ is here regarded in 
the permanence of its effects. The Apostles were 
commissioned to carry on Christ's work ; their office 
was to apply His office according to the needs of the 
faithful to whom they ministered. This power of 
Absolution was therefore handed on and delegated 
to them : " Then He breathed on them and saith 
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosoever 
sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. ' ' Words 
that are even now repeated when the commission is 
handed on in the ordination of a priest, for to no 
minister under the degree of priest is the power of 
Absolution delegated. 

In the lately discovered " Teaching of the Twelve 
Apostles" special prominence is given to two sacra- 
ments, and to two only. To Baptism, as we have 
seen, Confirmation and Absolution would seem to 
be attached ; Absolution being, as St. Jerome said, 
a plank from the shipwreck of entire forgiveness. 
The other " Gospel Sacrament" is the Holy Eucha- 
rist. Even in this early treatise (dating about ioo 
a.d.) the title Eucharist seems to have been given to 
this sacrament. 

Under the old Dispensation there was the feast 
upon the sacrifice, which applied the blessing of the 
sacrifice to the offerer. It was a token of union 
with God and of renewed favor. This was especially 
the case in the feast of the Passover. Each faithful 
Jew was to eat of the Paschal Lamb under pain of 
being cut off from his people. When the Baptist 



156 THE SACRAMENTS. 

cried aloud, " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world !" it is a very compre- 
hensive title, embracing many points of teaching. 
Probably the reference was primarily to the fifty- 
third chapter of Isaiah, " He is brought as a lamb to 
the slaughter." But it could not end there. Morn- 
ing and evening was a lamb offered in the Temple ; 
it would be therefore the most familiar type of sacri- 
fice. But the most important was the Paschal Lamb, 
to which the Incarnate Lord was afterward likened 
by Apostles. In his Gospel St. John* claims that 
the command with respect to the Paschal Lamb, " a 
bone of it shall not be broken," was fulfilled in the 
omission to break any bone of the crucified Saviour. 
St. Paul f says boldly, " Christ our Passover is sac- 
rificed for us ;" and St. Peter, J referring probably to 
the same image, says we were redeemed with the 
" precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without 
blemish and without spot." How, it may be asked, 
can we partake of the sacrifice offered for us ? How 
can we partake of the Paschal Lamb ? How are we 
to be " partakers of Christ?" 

Now before giving the answer to this we must be 
reminded of one universal peculiarity of sacrifice, 
which was in existence throughout the whole known 
world, Gentile as well as Jewish. This cannot be 
given better than in the carefully weighed words of 
a very talented and learned writer, Archdeacon 
Freeman :§ 



* St. John 19 : 36, cf. Exodus 12 : 46. 

f 1 Corinthians 5:7. $ 1 St. Peter 1 : 19. 

§ " Principles of Divine Service," Part II., ch. i., § 4, p. 75. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 57 

4 ' It is much to be observed, as an unfailing feature 
of Gentile sacrifice, when properly performed, that 
animals were never offered alone, but always with 
an accompaniment of flour and wine. Nor only so. 
The victim, though itself the efficacious element of 
the sacrifice, was offered by means of the bread and 
wine. The bread was broken and sprinkled on the 
head of the animal while alive ; and again, wine, 
with frankincense, was poured between its horns. 
This done, the sacrifice was conceived to have been 
duly offered, so far as concerned the gift and dedi- 
cation of it on man's part, and the acceptance of it 
by the Deity. This is proved by the fact that im- 
7nolare, to sprinkle with the broken viola, or cake, was 
used, as is well known, to express the entire actiori of 
sacrifice, the slaying and burning included. So again, 
mactare, to enrich or crown with the addition of 
wine, was likewise used for the whole action. This 
is an absolute proof of the immense virtue and im- 
plicit power attributed to the bread and wine in 
these sacrifices. They were held to carry within 
them, in a manner, the whole action. The present- 
ing of them was the presenting of the slain sacrifice ; 
the acceptance of them was its acceptance. And 
that, moreover, they were identified respectively, 
the broken bread with the body to be slain, the 
poured out wine with the blood to be shed, is both 
probable from the obvious parallel and is counte- 
nanced by other parts of the system. Thus the poor, 
who could not afford slain victims, were allowed to 
do their part by providing cakes of bread ; and these 
were sometimes made in the shape of the ox to be 
sacrificed, and might be offered alone. And the 



158 THE SACRAMENTS. 

drinking of blood was, though rarely, substituted 
for that of wine. 

" Now all this coincides marvellously with the 
Mosaic provisions, by which the animal sacrifice was 
held to be completed when the bread offering had 
been laid and the wine poured out on the victim ; 
and again, with the law allowing the poor to bring a 
bread offering instead of victims." 

Here, then, we have one universal peculiarity, 
which some might ascribe to a common origin, which 
must be allowed by all to evince a sense of appropri- 
ateness, which may not so easily be apprehended 
now that we are no longer familiar with the ritual 
of slain sacrifices. If we say that there was a com- 
mon origin, it will be difficult not to admit that such 
origin was divine ; if we think otherwise, then, at 
least, we must see that for many thousand years 
God had been training the wmole human race for the 
awful moment "in the upper room furnished and 
prepared." 

The Jews had been prepared by the prophecy of 
Malachi, which Christians have from the very first 
acknowledged as prophetical ol the Holy Eucharist. 
In the early written document just cited we read, 
" On the Lord's Day of the Lord come together and 
break Bread, and give thanks, confessing your tres- 
passes, that your sacrifice may be pure. For this is 
that sacrifice spoken of by the Lord, ' In every place 
and time offer Me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great 
King, saith the Lord, and My Name is wonderful 
among the Gentiles.' " A few years later St. Justin 
Martyr claims the same prophecy for a similar refer- 
ence, and a few years later again St. Irenasus quotes it 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 59 

to the same purpose. We must see that the applica- 
tion of the prophecy to the Holy Eucharist dates from 
a time coeval with the latest of the Apostles at least. 
More than this, the Lord prepared His disciples 
twelve months before in the discourse He delivered 
at Capernaum. In this sermon the Lord's teaching 
becomes more emphatic the more His hearers carped 
at His sayings. St. John, who does not record the 
institution either of Baptism or the Eucharist (be- 
cause the institution had been sufficiently recorded 
previously), records the deep teaching of our Lord 
about both sacraments. 

At Capernaum the Lord said, " The Bread which 
I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the 
life of the world." When His hearers carped at 
His saying, " How can this man give us His Flesh to 
eat?" He answered in the emphatic statement, wit- 
nessed to by an asseveration, " Verily, verily I say 
unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man 
and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you" — 
words that could not have been understood * at the 
time. But how must the words have rushed upon 
the minds of the Apostles when they saw the ac- 
tion and heard the words of their Master at that 
mysterious Last Supper. " He took bread, and 
gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, say- 
ing, This is My Body which is given for you ; this 
do in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup 
after Supper, saying, This cup is the New Testa- 
ment in My Blood ; this do ye as oft as ye drink it 
in remembrance ol Me." Here, as Archdeacon 

* See Apppendix EE. 



l6o THE SACRAMENTS. 

Freeman says,* "the broken Bread and the Wine 
poured out is. with a tremendous precision of lan- 
guage which leaves no escape, identified with the 
Body yet to be slain, and the Blood yet to be shed 
in sacrifice. . . . Simple breaking of bread with 
sacrificial intent and gesture was a sufficient ' immo- 
lation,' simple pouring out of wine with that intent 
was effective ' mactation ' of the yet living Victim." 
Herein and hereby may Christians partake of the 
one only true and efficacious sacrifice of the Cross. 
Herein we feed upon " the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sins of the world," in the glorious sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Body and Blood. 

Each word, each act, was sacrificial ; the Sacra- 
ment of the Eucharist, therefore, has ever been re- 
garded as the Christian sacrifice or offering from the 
very first. Even from the words " Do this" it is im- 
possible to exclude the meaning of sacrifice or offer- 
ing. For the word was ever used in the Greek 
Septuagint for sacrifice, or keeping the Passover, or 
other feast, f and even absolutely without any ac- 
cusative in the sense of offering to a false God, and 
so of worship. It is the memorial of the one Sacri- 
fice on the Cross. By it the virtue of that Sacrifice 
is extended to us. It is a symbol which actually 
conveys " verily and indeed " to the faithful That of 
Which it is a symbol. 

As we have seen animal sacrifice and the offering 
of blood was universal, we have also seen that the 
essential accompaniment of such sacrifice in Gentile 



* " Principles of Divine Service," Part II., p. 80. 
f See Appendix FF. 



THE SACRAMENTS. l6l 

and Levitical ceremony was an offering of bread and 
wine. We have also seen that animal sacrifice in the 
Greek and Roman civilized world, as well as in the 
Jewish community, has ceased. In the Jewish 
Church it ceased at once and forever at the end of 
the probationary forty years after the offering of the 
" One perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and 
satisfaction for the sins of the whole world" on the 
Cross. But if sacrifice from the first has been uni- 
versal, it must be one of the fundamental principles 
of worship. It cannot be and it is not absent from 
Christian worship. With us the universal offering 
of Bread and Wine is now the one Sacrifice we offer 
here on the Holy Table (which thereupon becomes 
an Altar), and Christ pleads His Sacrifice and the 
merits of His Blood in the Holy of Holies in Heaven. 
Then our Brother (like the true Joseph) feeds us 
from His Altar (which thereupon becomes a Table) 
with the Bread of Heaven and the Wine of Heaven, 
the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Christian 
Sacrifice has entirely superseded the other sacrifices 
as the Sacrifice of the Cross has caused the ante- 
cedent and typical sacrifices to cease. The Holy 
Eucharist, therefore, is a continual evidence of the 
truth of the one Sacrifice of which it is the me- 
morial, the full and complete efficacy of which has 
caused all bleeding sacrifices to be done away. To 
us, then, as to the Jews of old, when Ave offer to 
God, that whereon we offer is rightly called an Altar ; 
and when we feed on our offering it is rightly called 
a Table.* 

* Compare Malachi 1:7: "Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine 
altar : and ye say, Wherein have we polluted Thee ? In that ye say, 
11 



l62 THE SACRAMENTS. 

There can be no question that from the first times 
Christians have believed the truth of the Great Mys- 
tery, that in the Holy Eucharist we " spiritually eat 
the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood." This is 
testified to in every way, in many different words 
and phrases, in every part of the world. In the 
second century we have two very remarkable in- 
scriptions testifying to the faith then held, wmich 
must suffice for our purpose here. One is in Gaul, 
the other in Asia Minor. Tn Gaul we read at the 
end of a short poem addressed to the Christian,* 
" Receive the honey sweet food of the holy things 
of the Saviour. Eat, drink, having Jesus Christ the 
Son of God the Saviour in thy hands." About the 
same time or a little earlier, about 180-90 A.D., a 
monumental inscription on the tomb of Bishop 
Abercius, discovered in Asia Minor in 1883, nas a 
testimony to the same belief. The Bishop Abercius 
wrote his epitaph and had it cut during his lifetime. 
He describes his travels, and toward the end he has :f 
" Ever\^ where Faith led the way, and set before me 
for food Fish from the fountain, mighty and pure 
(Whom a chaste virgin grasped), and gave This to 
friends to eat always, having the best wine and giv- 
ing the mixed cup with bread." The word Fish 
representing the anagram of " Jesus Christ the Son 
of God the Saviour." 

In the last quotation the two parts of the sacra- 
ment are referred to, the bread and the mixed cup — 

the Table of the Lord is contemptible." See also verse 12, Ezekiel 
41 : 22 ; 44 : r.6 ; 1 Corinthians 10 : 2t ; Hebrews 13 : 10. 

* See " Doctrine of Real Presence," by Dr. Pusey, p. 337. 

f See Bishop Lightfooi's " Ignatius," vol. i., p. 480. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 163 

i.e., wine mixed with water; and the inward part, 
Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour. Both are 
given for food to the faithful Christian, and as our 
Article saith, to deny either part " overthroweth the 
nature of a sacrament." Remarkably enough, the 
teaching which is called " Transubstantiation" — that 
is, that the whole substance of bread and wine after 
consecration is changed into the whole substance of 
the Body and Blood of Christ, was by anticipation 
condemned in the controversies of the fifth century. 
Theodoret in his second dialogue introduces a her- 
etic, whom he calls Eranistes or Guildsman, dis- 
puting with Orthodoxus, the holder of the truth, and 
the dispute in the part referred to is as follows : 

" Guildsman. What do you call the gift that is offered before the 
invocation of the priest ? 

" Orthodox. No plain answer should be given to this, since there 
may be some present who are not Christians. 

" G. Well, let the answer be enigmatical. 

" 0. It is food made of such seeds. 

" G. And how call you the other symbol ? 

" O. This, too, has a common name signifying a common drink. 

" G. But after consecration how do you call them ? 

" O. The Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. 

" G. Do you believe that you partake of the Body of Christ and 
His Blood? 

" O. That is my belief. 

" G. Well, then, just as the symbols of the Lord's Body and Blood 
are one thing before the invocation of the priest, but are changed 
after the invocation and become something else, so the Lord's Body 
after His Ascension was changed into the substance that is Divine. 

" O. You are caught in your own net. For the mystic symbols 
do not abandon their own proper nature, even after consecration. 
For they remain in the same substance, shape, and form, and are 
visible and tangible, as they were before. But they are understood 
to be those things which they have become, and they are believed to 
be such, and ate reverenced as actually being What they are believed 



164 THE SACRAMENTS. 

to be. Compare, then, the image with the archetype, and you will 
see the likeness. For the type should be like the verity. For the 
body hath its former appearance and circumference, and, in a word, 
the substance of the body. But after the Resurrection it became im- 
mortal and incorruptible, and has been found worthy of the seat at 
the Right Hand, and is adored by all creation because it is called the 
Body of the Lord of creation. 

" G. And yet the mystical symbol changes its former designation ; 
for It is no longer called by its former name, but is spoken of as 
' Body ' ; so then the Truth must be called God and not ' Body.' 

" O. You seem to me to be ignorant. For It is not only called 
Body, but also Bread of Life. For so the Lord Himself designated 
It. And we call the Body Divine and life giving, and the Master's 
and the Lord's ; teaching that It is not a common Body of any man, 
but of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God and man. For Jesus Christ 
is the same yesterday, and to day, and forever." * 

The same passage also condemns the opinion of 
those who regard the Bread and Wine as mere 
tokens of something Which is absent. For the 
same are called Bread and Wine, and at the same 
time the Body and Blood of Christ. 

One other passage will here be given, from the 
book " De Sacramentis," which has been ascribed 
to St. Ambrose. It is remarkable for its clear state- 
ment and also for the very clever but most unscrupu- 
lous manner in which it has been altered to suit 
modern Roman doctrine. The passage runs thus : 
" You see, then, how powerful in working is the 
Word of Christ. If, then, there is such force in the 
Word of our Lord Jesus Christ (in creation) that 
those things which had no existence began to exist, 
how much more powerful is it in commanding that 
they should remain what they were and yet be 
changed to something else ?" Ut sint qnce erant, et 

* Theodoreti, Opera, Paris, 1642, Tom. IV., p. 85. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 165 

in aliud commutentur. So was it in a manuscript 
Roman Breviary of 1473 in the Bodleian Library at 
Oxford, for the fourth lesson of the Saturday in the 
Octave of Corpus Christi. So was it in the printed 
Roman Breviary of 1522, for the first lesson for the 
Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi. But 
a change has now passed over the passage in the 
Roman Breviary. 

With wonderful ingenuity six letters have been 
omitted, with the result that the passage is made to 
say precisely what it did not say originally, as seen 
in the excellent Benedictine edition * and in the 
earlier editions of the Breviary. The words sint and 
et are omitted. The result is the passage reads, 
" How much more powerful the word which com- 
mands that things which had an existence should be 
changed into something else," Ut quce era?it in 
aliud commutentur. The original passage teaches the 
doctrine held by all early writers and by the Eng- 
lish Church ; the altered phrase agrees better with 
the modern views of Rome. The alteration is very 
instructive. 

" The benefits whereof we are partakers in the 
Holy Eucharist are the strengthening and refresh- 
ing our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ, as 
our bodies are nourished by the Bread and Wine." 
As our natural bodies are sustained by partaking of 
natural food, so are our souls and spirits sustained 
by spiritual food. It is not enough for us that we 
have received life natural, we must maintain it by 
the means provided by our merciful Creator. It is 

* Ambrosii, Opera, Paris, 1690, Tom. II., col. 369 A. 



1 66 THE SACRAMENTS. 

not enough for us to have received spiritual life, we 
must pray, " Give us this day our daily Bread ;" we 
must feed our souls on the Bread of Life. The im- 
portance and necessity of this dependence on our 
Incarnate Lord is brought home to us by the image 
of eating and drinking. When we think of it, the 
daily assimilation of food is so mysterious, that were 
it not so very common, we should call it a miracle. 
We take dead matter into us, and at some moment 
there is a separation, and some part of the dead 
matter is chosen for life, and is absorbed into the 
living body, and becomes living tissue. This must 
depend upon the blessing of the Creator, Who has 
also said, " Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man 
and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. For 
My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink 
indeed." 

But when the body of a man is not healthy the 
food he may take does him no good : either he has 
no appetite and cannot eat or he may have a large 
appetite but no power to assimilate food, and it is 
possible that a man may eat much and die of inan- 
ition. The food he takes may be the same in every 
particular as is taken by another who is well nour- 
ished by it, but having no power to draw sustenance 
from the food, he gains no benefit therefrom. So 
with the Blessed Sacrament. The same is offered 
to all, but all do not alike benefit. Some, alas ! have 
not the subjective power of assimilation, arising from 
some sickness of soul, some lack of faith, or some 
presence of unrepented and wilful sin. Others eat 
and drink to their soul's health and go on from 
strength to strength. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 1 67 

From some feeling, whether from dread of irrever- 
ence or otherwise, a practice arose of withdrawing 
the cup from the laity. But as Gelasius in the fifth 
century said, " We have learned that certain persons 
after having received the portion of the Sacred Body 
abstain from the chalice of the Sacred Blood. Which 
persons without doubt should either partake of the 
sacraments in their entirety or be excluded from the 
entire sacrament, because the division of one and 
the same mystery cannot take place without great 
sacrilege. ' ' * What God hath joined together in this 
sacrament we have no right to put asunder. Rather 
may we think with some that if man had never fallen 
there would have been no need (to speak with deep- 
est humility) of our partaking of the Saviour's Blood ; 
but the cup is specially connected with " the remis- 
sion of sins," as St. Matthew records. It would 
seem, therefore, bitter cruelty to the communicant, 
as well as sacrilege in the sight of God, to maim the 
sacrament and deprive the layman of the chalice. 
It was not done without deep and well-deserved dis- 
satisfaction, and in England and in many parts of the 
Continent of Europe an unconsecrated cup was min- 
istered to the people to content them, if possible^ 
under the plea of a desire to assist deglutition. 

The consideration of this great sacrament would 
lead us to consider the grace of Holy Orders con- 
veyed by the laying on of hands, setting apart a con- 
secrated ministry to represent the High Priest on 
earth, and to consecrate the Holy Eucharist in His 

* Preserved in Gratian Decretum, Pars. III. ; De Consecrat. Dis. 
II., cap. 12, Lugduni, 1606, col. 1918. It is doubtless genuine. 
See Berardi, Tom. II., p. 392, Madrid, 1783. 



1 68 THE SACRAMENTS. 

Name. He is Captain or Chief Guide,* His minis- 
ters under Him are guides or rulers. f He is Chief 
Shepherd ; ^ they are shepherds under Him. He is 
the High Priest,§ they are priests under Him. He 
is Bishop, so are some of them as His ambassadors.! 
Ordination, then, is not only an outward call or 
recognition of one set apart or admitted to minis- 
terial position ; it is a means of conveying grace, and 
is of a sacramental character. Here as elsewhere in 
the dealing of God with man the inward grace, is 
conveyed by outward means. None can claim the 
right of ministering with the authority of God's 
minister without some credentials. In the case of a 
new order of ministers, such as Moses and Aaron, 
or the Apostles of Christ, their credentials were 
miraculous gifts, to which they could appeal as evi- 
dence of their delegation. But it has been the or- 
dinary working of God's Providence that, after some 
such intervention, as by a new creation, the grace or 
power be transmitted in some appointed manner. 
In the case of the Levitical priesthood it was trans- 
mitted from father to son by natural generation. In 
the Christian priesthood it is transmitted from Bishop 
to Bishop by spiritual succession, the grace being 
conveyed by laying on of hands. It is therefore dis- 
tinctly sacramental. 

Nor may we deny this in a certain sense to Holy 
Matrimony. Archbishop Cranmer said that there is 
only one sacrament directly recognized in the Bible, 
and that is Matrimony. St. Paul is speaking of 

* Hebrews 2 : 10, etc. f Hebrews 13 : 7, 20, etc. 

% 1 St. Peter 5:4. § Hebrews 8 : 1. 

|| 1 St. Peter 2 : 25 ; 2 Corinthians 5 : 20, etc. 



THE SACRAMENTS. 169 

Holy Matrimony as the type to us of the union 
which exists between Christ and His Church and 
calls it " a great mystery," magnum sacramentum. 
It certainly is of Divine institution, but antecedent 
to Christianity dating from the creation. It is of so 
deeply sacred a character that God (as God alone 
can be) is the avenger of all offence against this 
deeply sacred estate. Open recognition and tolera- 
tion of sins against marriage are tokens of a low 
standard of Christian life. Where Matrimony is 
Holy there is doubtless a large supply of grace 
granted. Indeed,* " how can we find words fully 
to describe the blessedness of that marriage which 
the Church cements, the oblation confirms, the bless- 
ing seals, angels report, God the Father ratifies !" 

One more is " commonly called " a sacrament, 
and is called Extreme Unction. The tradition for 
this is very slight. Doubtless all sacerdotal bene- 
diction is sacramental in character, and our Church 
has rather introduced the solemn visitation of the 
sick in lieu of this, which was regarded as an inexact 
or even corrupt following of the Apostles. 

In conclusion, we must remember that all sacra- 
ments and sacramentals are, as it were, " extensions 
of the Incarnation" to us while we are in this pres- 
ent world, with our spiritual perceptions less keen 
than they will be hereafter. They are visible means 
of imparting to the faithful individually the partici- 
pation of the benefits procured for all in general by 
the Incarnation. The words of Hooker, f giving the 

* Tertullian, " Ad Uxorem," II. viii. 

f Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," Book V., ch. lxvii., § 7. 



I/O THE SACRAMENTS. 

points in which all agree about the Holy Com- 
munion, are so valuable that they are here cited. 
"It is on all sides plainly confessed, first that this 
sacrament [of the Holy Eucharist] is a true and real 
participation of Christ, Who thereby imparteth Him- 
self, even His whole entire Person, as a mystical 
Head unto every soul that receiveth Him, and that 
every such receiver doth thereby incorporate or 
unite himself unto Christ as a mystical member of 
Him, yea of them also whom He acknowledged to 
be His own ; secondly, that to whom the person of 
Christ is thus communicated, to them He giveth by 
the same sacrament His Holy Spirit to sanctify 
them, as it sanctifieth Him which is their head ; 
thirdly, that what merit, force, or virtue soever 
there is in His sacrificed Body and Blood, we freely, 
fully, and wholly have it in this sacrament ; fourthly, 
that the effect thereof in us is a real transmutation 
of our souls and bodies from sin to righteousness, 
from death and corruption to immortality and life ; 
fifthly, that because the sacrament being of itself but 
a corruptible and earthly creature must needs be 
thought an unlikely instrument to work so admirable 
effects in man, we are therefore to rest ourselves 
altogether upon the strength of His glorious power, 
Who is able and will bring to pass that the bread 
and the cup which He giveth us shall be truly the 
thing He promiseth." 

The Incarnation Itself alone brought infinite bless- 
ing to the creation at large and to mankind in par- 
ticular. As a result of the Incarnation disease has 
greatly lost its power and malignity ; for in conse- 
quence of the "love of God toward man" therein 



THE SACRAMENTS. 171 

manifested, hospitals have been founded which have 
enabled physicians to study disease. The power of 
the evil one has been marvellously checked ; demoni- 
acal possession has been minimized if not altogether 
quelled ; the oracles are dumb. 

Surely, then, we need not wonder that we are 
called upon to believe that the sacraments extend to 
our whole nature, bodies as well as souls and spirits, 
some of the marvellous benefits thus gained. ' ' Who- 
so eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath 
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.''' 
They are the words of Truth Himself. Therefore, 
saith the one who distributes, " The Body, the 
Blood, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting 
life." Therefore may we say, " My flesh, my living 
flesh, also shall dwell confidently in hope." 

" O my God, Thou art true ; O my soul, thou art 
happy." 



LECTURE VII. 

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

" But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him 
should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; because that 
Jesus was not yet glorified." — St. John 7 : 39. 

No work or revelation of God is without prepara- 
tion. It may at the time seem to be sudden to the 
man who has not prepared himself or allowed him- 
self to be prepared for it ; but on looking back we 
can see how gradual has been the preparation. This 
will be found to be true of each one of us. When 
we look back on our past lives we must (if we are 
really striving to love and fear God) see how He 
has been all along dealing with us. What is true of 
each one is true of the universe, so far as we know 
it ; it is true of God's dealings with man. 

Reading in the Old Testament the record of God's 
dealings with His chosen people Israel, we see how 
in spite of the stiff-hearted opposition and rebellion 
of the people they were gradually lifted to a know- 
ledge of one part of the Truth, the Unity of God. 
" A truth revealed by God is never a truth out of 
relation with previous thought. He leads men to 
feel their moral and intellectual needs before He 
satisfies either. There was a preparation for He- 
brew monotheism, as there was a preparation for the 
doctrine of Christ. There was an intellectual prep- 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 73 

aration for the doctrine of the Trinity, as there was 
a moral preparation for the doctrine of the Incarna- 
tion."* 

This is seen in the merciful manner in which we 
read Almighty God approached His sinning and sin- 
ful creatures. It is generally by a question, in order 
to awaken a response in the man himself before any 
reproof or blame is spoken. To Adam after his sin 
there came the questions, " Adam, where art thou ? 
Who told thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou 
eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that 
thou shouldest not eat?" To the wayward and in- 
dignant prophet there came the question, " Doest 
thou well to be angry ?" To the disheartened and 
despondent prophet the still, small voice said, 
'What doest thou here, Elijah?" And so is it 
ever. There is ever a preparation, and no work or 
revelation of God is sudden. Samuel the holy boy 
had to be prepared by Eli for the revelation that 
was to be made to him. 

Even after Pentecost continual preparation was 
required to reconcile the Apostles and first converts 
to the widening sphere of their labors. It is re- 
markable to observe how reluctant St. Peter was to 
recei ve the conception of the admission of the Gentiles 
to the full privileges of the Gospel covenant. Even 
then, when he had been convinced by a miraculous 
vision, and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on 
the Gentile centurion and his friends, and the Church 
at Jerusalem had decided the matter, even then St. 
Peter failed at Antioch to maintain the truth. 

* Aubrey Moore, in " Lux Mundi," p. 90. 



174 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

The great truths about the Incarnation only be- 
came fully known after much controversy, but out 
of all opposing error the Truth issued. Must we 
not expect the same for all truth ? 

If this be the case, we must not be surprised that 
the doctrine about the Holy Spirit is even yet lack- 
ing in its full revelation. We profess indeed that 
we " believe in the Holy Ghost," and this is a special 
characteristic of our Christian Creed ; but what was 
felt by St. Augustine fifteen centuries ago is still a 
truth now, that " the teaching about the Holy Spirit 
had not been as yet so fully and carefully discussed 
that we can easily understand His distinguishing 
property." * At the present moment the one great 
desideratum in theology is a full treatise on the doc- 
trine of the Holy Ghost. It is certainly one evi- 
dence of this that it has been possible to issue twelve 
" Lectures on the Nicene Creed," without a word 
about the Holy Ghost except as an obiter dictmn.\ It 
may be, as St. Basil seems to intimate, that the full 
revelation of the Holy Spirit is reserved for the 
future beatitude of the Saints. " Who is so igno- 
rant (the Saint writes) of the good things prepared 
by God for those who are worthy of them, as not to 
know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of 
the Spirit, which is then given more abundantly and 
in greater perfection when spiritual glory is distrib- 
uted to every one in proportion to his good 
deeds ?" % At present it is certain that from one 

* De fide et symbolo, § 19. 

f " Christianity in Relation to Science and Morals." Lectures on 
the Nicene Creed by Malcolm MacColl. 

\ St. Basil, " De Sancto Spiritu," §40, Tom. III., 34 B. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 75 

cause or another there is not perfect agreement in 
the Church about this great doctrine. It may be 
that, as attacks of heretics and others caused the 
doctrine of the Incarnation to be settled at large, so 
now the assaults of intellectual sceptics may cause 
the Church to formulate, after reverent discussion, 
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in a manner accept- 
able to the whole Church. 

Hitherto the revelation has been made very grad- 
ually. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit ap- 
pears rather as an influence or an energy. It was 
impossible (to speak humanly) that He should be 
represented as a Person in a dispensation which had 
to emphasize the Unity of God. In Christian times 
heretics, who failed to grasp the doctrine of the 
Trinity, still regarded Him as an influence or oper- 
ation. The Spirit brooded over the waters at the 
creation, the Spirit was breathed into Adam when 
he became a living soul, order and advance toward 
perfection was by the Spirit ; He taught David to 
draw the plan of the Temple ; " He. spake by the 
prophets." Later on, in the books of the silence, 
we read, " The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world," 
and again, " is in all things." * 

In the New Testament the revelation is still grad- 
ual. But in our Blessed Lord's discourses there are 
words which, as interpreted by the inspired Apostle, 
throw great light on many passages of Scripture. f 
" He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, 
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 
But this (explains the Apostle) He spake of the Spirit 

* Wisdom 1 : 7 ; 12 : 1. f St. John 7 : 38. 



176 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

which they that believe on Him should receive. 
This helps us to understand many sayings of the 
prophets — " With joy shall ye draw water out of 
the wells of salvation." " In the wilderness shall 
waters break out and streams in the desert." " I 
will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods on 
the dry ground ; I will pour My Spirit on thy seed, 
and My blessing upon thine offspring." This, too, 
will help us to understand the vision of the Holy 
Waters, the River of Life, of Ezekiel, explained, as it 
would seem to be, by St. John in the Apocalypse : 
" He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear 
as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and 
of the Lamb." So again, in the prophet Zechariah : 
" It shall be in that day that living waters shall go 
out from Jerusalem." * It also enables us to under- 
stand that when the Lord spoke to the Samaritan 
woman He spoke of the Holy Spirit. f ' Whoso- 
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him 
shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life." Then it was that the Lord used 
the word "gift," which became attached to the 
greatest privilege of Christians, the " gift of the 
Holy Ghost." He said, " If thou knewest the gift 
of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me 
to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He 
would have given thee living water." 

Thenceforward the Holy Spirit was spoken of as 
the gift of God. Thus St. Peter on the day of Pente- 

* Isaiah 12 : 3 ; 35 : 6 ; 44 : 3 ; Ezekiel 47 : 1 sq. ; Revelation 
22 : 1 ; Zechariah 14 : 8. 
f St. John 4 : 10, 14. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 77 

cost promised that on Repentance and after Baptism 
this " gift" should be received, and throughout the 
Book of the Acts the word translated gift in St. 
Peter's speech is always of the " gift" of the Holy 
Ghost. It is used by St. Peter when rebuking 
Simon Magus, " Because thou thoughtest that the 
gift of God could be purchased by money." This 
is it which causes St. Paul to burst out, " Thanks be 
to God for His unspeakable^//." St. Athanasius, 
too, says, " The Holy Spirit is emphatically the gift 
ol God."* St. Hilary of Poitiers also says, "He 
commanded to baptize in the Name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost — that is, in 
the confession of the Author, of the Only Begotten, 
and of the Gift. For there is one God the Father, 
of whom are all things ; and one Only Begotten, our 
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things ; and 
one Spirit, the Gift in all." f Similarly St. Augus- 
tine, commenting on our Lord's words to the woman 
of Samaria, says, " The gift of God is the Holy 
Spirit." Indeed he regards it as the personal char- 
acteristic of the Holy Spirit to be and to be called 
" the gift of God." t 

The Lord Jesus also called Him "the Finger of 
God," and in relation to His Church, " the Promise 
of the Father." 

He is the Lord — that is, very and true God, equally 
with the Father and the Son eternal, Almighty, 

* Orat. c. Arianos, II., § 18. Opera Patavii, Tom. i., p. 383 D. 

f " De Trinitate," II. i., Opera Veronse, 1730, Tom. II., col. 26 A. 

\ St. Augustine, in Jo., cap. iv., Tract XV., § 12, Opera, Paris, 
1690, Tom. III., p. 2, col. 410 G ; De Trin. XV., § 33, Tom. VIII., 
coi. 990. 

12 



178 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

God and Lord. He_is also the lifegiver, of all life 
that is, natural and spiritual. Hence it is that the 
psalm which is the psalm of creation, abounding in 
life (Psalm 104), has been appropriated to Whit- 
sunday. By His operation the life, which is in the 
Word, is imparted to the world. He is the Giver of 
life spiritual ; by His operation the dead matter of 
the outward and visible signs in the sacraments be- 
comes instinct with life, for the conveyance and the 
maintenance of the spiritual life in each faithful 
Christian. He is a distinct Person. " Seeing the 
Father is of none, the Son is of the Father, and the 
Spirit is of both, they are by these their several 
properties really distinguishable each from other. 
For the substance of God with this property to be 
of none doth make the Person of the Father ; the 
very selfsame substance in number with this prop- 
erty to be of the Father maketh the Person of the Son ; 
the same substance having added unto it the prop- 
erty of proceeding from the other Two maketh the Per- 
son of the Holy Ghost. So that in every Person 
there is implied both the substance of God, which is 
one, and also that property which causeth the same 
Person really and truly to differ from the other 
Two." * 

He is called " the Spirit of the Father," and the 
Lord Jesus said that He " proceedeth from the 
Father," which statement has been incorporated in all 
full Christian Creeds. But also He is called " the 
Spirit of the Son ;" the Lord Jesus said of Him, " I 
will send Him unto you from the Father," from the 

* Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," Book V., ch. li., § I. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 79 

immediate Presence of the Father, from beside the 
Father ; he is also said to be given by the Son.* 
Therefore we confess with St. Augustine f that " the 
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also," as well as 
from the Father, as also a few paragraphs previously 
he wrote ; " The Holy Spirit, according to the 
Scriptures, is neither of the Father alone, nor of the 
Son alone, but of both, and so intimates to us a 
mutual love, wherewith the Father and the Son re- 
ciprocally love One Another." Therefore is He 
believed to be the Bond of union between the Father 
and the Son, whereby (to speak with deepest awe 
and adoration) they two are mutually revealed One 
to Other. What a deep mystery is hinted at in the 
words of the Apostle! "The Spirit searcheth all 
things, even the depths of God. For what man 
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him ? Even so the things of God know- 
eth none, but the Spirit of God." % 

The Spirit, therefore, is of both the Father and 
the Son, but not of both in the same way. There is 
but one eternal, efficient Principle, One Source, The 
Father. When, therefore, we acknowledge the 
truth of the Scriptures, we confess that " the Holy 
Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son ; neither 
made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." 
The vision of the Apostle St. John revealed to him § 
" a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the 

* St. Matthew 10 : 20 ; St. John 15 : 26 ; Galatians 4 : 6. 
f De Trin. XV. xvii., § 29, Opera, Paris, 1694, Tom. VIII., col. 
9S8. 

% 1 Corinthians 2 : 10. § Revelation 22 : 1. 



l8o THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Lamb ;" this has been thought to represent the pro- 
cession of the Holy Spirit. But we do not confess 
that He proceeds from the Son, as from an inde- 
pendent source or origin, but we believe that He 
proceeds from the Father through the Son. 

The sensitive character of the Greek language en- 
ables it to represent accuracy of doctrine better than 
others, and this probably is at the root of the seem- 
ing divergence of creed between Eastern and West- 
ern Christendom in this matter. When it shall please 
God that in this " the envy of Ephraim shall depart, 
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off, 
Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not 
vex Ephraim ;" when the spirit of antagonistic irri- 
tation shall have been allayed, then, as we may hope, 
we shall come to an agreement on the truth and the 
proper mode of expressing the Truth. There is no 
occasion in this place and before this audience to 
dwell longer on the divergence, the unhappy diver- 
gence, of expression between the Eastern and West- 
ern Branches of the Catholic and Orthodox Church ; 
reference need only be made to the monograph of 
one of your own professors on the subject.* 

Still there is much to be revealed about the glori- 
ous Third Person of the Ever Blessed Trinity. There 
are hints and images in Scripture which evidently 
have reference to Him, which are still without ex- 
planation. We read in the vision of the Apocalypse 
of " the Lamb, having seven horns and seven eyes, 
which are the seven spirits of God," and the passage 
seems to remind us of hints in the prophets of old, in 

* " The Nicene Creed and the Filioque," by Rev. T. Richey, D.D. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 8 1 

Isaiah, and Zechariah, and, perchance, Ezekiel. 
Zechariah speaks of seven eyes upon One Stone — the 
Headstone, or the Corner-Stone, which are the eyes 
of the Lord.* Isaiah speaks of the seven Spirits 
which should rest upon the Branch, f and the order 
in which they are mentioned is in itself a mystery. 
It seems to imply that the seven Spirits, or, as some 
have said, gifts of the Spirit, form a glorious circle 
of perfection, so that wherever a commencement is 
made, the return will bring you to the same. And 
wherever you begin, or wherever you leave off, if 
you complete the circle you must begin where you 
leave off, and leave off where you begin. Thus St. 
Hilary and St. Ambrose show how the prophet 
Isaiah enumerates the gifts in the natural order of 
their advance, beginning from Wisdom and advanc- 
ing to the Fear of the Lord. While St. Gregory the 
Great, seeing that Holy Scripture speaks of the Fear 
of the Lord as the beginning of Wisdom, beautifully 
likens the seven gifts to the seven steps which led 
up to the Temple in the vision of Ezekiel. As you 
regard the seven steps you would be inclined to 
number them down from the top, but the bottom 
step would be the one first trodden upon to raise the 
man to the higher level. So, saith the Saint, the 
prophet Isaiah names the seven gifts from the top- 
most downward, while man, to ascend up, must com- 
mence from the last-mentioned, but the first to be 
attained, which is the Fear of the Lord.;): 

There is much to make us feel that the full teach- 



* Zechariah 3 : 9 ; 4 : 7, 10. f Isaiah 11:2. 

% St. Gregorii, Opera, Paris, 1705, Tom. i., col. 13S0. 



182 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

ing about the Holy Spirit is still to be revealed. 
The number seven, which clusters about these inti- 
mations of His operation, would seem to teach the 
perfection of His work ; for in Scripture seven de- 
notes completion and perfection.* 

But there is seen to be a special relation of the 
Holy Spirit toward the Lord Jesus Christ. St. 
Paul f and St. Peter % both call Him " The Spirit of 
Christ;" St. Paul § calls Him also ''the Spirit of 
the Son," while St. Luke, in the Book of the ActsJ 
calls him (as the true reading is) " the Spirit of 
Jesus." We can understand, therefore, the state- 
ment of St. Basil, " So, then, you observe there are 
three, the Lord Who commands, the Word Who 
creates, the Spirit Who establishes." As he had 
said just before, in speaking of the Creation of the 
angels, " By the will of the Father ministering spirits 
subsist, by the operation of the Son they are brought 
into being, and by the Presence of the Spirit they 
are perfected." 1" The work of establishing and 
perfecting that, which the Son has created, is the 
special work of the Holy Spirit. 

Thus, at the creation, we read that when the 
creature had being granted and given by the Son, 
then " the Spirit of God brooded over the face of 
the waters," to bring the work to perfection- There 
is also a similar relation to be seen between Revela- 
tion and Inspiration ; Revelation is the work of the 
Word, as was seen in the first lecture ; Inspiration 
is by the Holy Spirit. Revelations may be for a 

* See Appendix G. G. f Romans 8 : q. 

% I St. Peter i : n. § Galatians 4 : 6. 

I Acts 16 : 7. 1 " De Sancto Spiritu," § 38. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 83 

local, personal, or temporal purpose, whereas In- 
spiration is for all time. Inspiration enables the sub- 
ject of it to choose out of the Revelations, or, as in 
the Old Testament, to choose out of the history of 
God's dealings with His people, such events as have, 
whether as types or otherwise, an interest and value 
for the Gospel times, and so for all time. In this, 
too, is seen the special relation of the Holy Spirit to 
God the Word.* 

Similarly, we find that in the New Creation, the 
work of the Holy Spirit is to carry on to perfection 
that which the Creator Word has called into exist- 
ence, to perfect the work which the Son has in- 
itiated. This is true in the Church at large and in 
each individual member of the Church. Hence it is 
that by His operation we know God, and become 
more and more like Him. As St. Basil says,f " In 
the illumination of the Spirit we see the ' true Light, 
which lighteth every man coming into the world.' 
So that in Himself He shows the glory of the Onlv 
Begotten, and to true worshippers He supplies of His 
own means, in Himself, the knowledge of God. So 
the way of the knowledge of God is from one Spirit 
through the one Son, to the One Father. And, again, 
the natural goodness, and the natural sanctification, 
and the Royal rank originating from the Father extend 
through the Only Begotten to the Spirit. Thus the 
Persons are confessed, and at the same time the godly 
doctrine of the Monarchia does not fall through." 

The same. St. Basil says again \% " As for the dis- 

* See " The Inspiration of Holy Scripture, its Nature and Proof," 
by Archdeacon Lee, D.D., of Dublin, 4th ed., Dublin, 1865. 

fZ/-, §47- %ld. % § 39- 



1 84 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

pensations relating to man, wrought by our great 
God and Saviour Jesus Christ, according to the 
goodness of God, who will gainsay that they are 
fulfilled through the grace of the Spirit ? Whether 
you will regard the things of old, the blessings of 
the patriarchs, the help that was given by the Law, 
the types, the prophecies, the heroism in war, the 
miracles wrought by the righteous, or the events of 
the dispensation concerning the appearing of the 
Lord in the flesh, all was by means of the Spirit." 

At the creation of man, when the body of the man 
had been prepared, then the Holy Spirit was breathed 
into Adam, and he became a living soul. But when 
Adam sinned, this glorious Presence, which clothed 
his soul like the robe of the King's Son, was stripped 
off him. " A certain man went down from Jerusa- 
lem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped 
him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, 
leaving him half dead." This has been thought by 
many to represent, in parable, the fall of Adam. 
The glorious robe of the Presence was stripped off, 
leaving a sense of nakedness, and his spoilers left 
him for a while really half dead — dead in soul and 
dying in body. In the curious apocryphal legend 
called the Revelation of Moses, Eve is represented 
as speaking of her fall and saying : " In that very 
hour mine eyes were opened, and I knew that I was 
naked of the righteousness with which I had been 
clothed." This will explain the intensity of poig- 
nant grief always attached in Holy Scripture to the 
shame of being naked ; it is the anguish, inexpressi- 
bly keen anguish, of the loss of God's Presence. 

In the first creation the Creator Word " formed 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. l8$ 

Adam and then breathed into his nostrils the Breath 
of Life. For the Holy Spirit cannot be received un- 
less he who receives have first of all an existence." * 

Similarly, as by analogy, we should expect, God 
the Word prepared the world of men for the re- 
newed communication of the Spirit of life ; that (as 
the fathers with one voice affirm) what man lost in 
Adam, he receives in Christ the last Adam, the sec- 
ond man. 

The text teaches us this : " The Holy Ghost was 
not yet given, because that Jesus was not glorified." 
This great Gift was not given before the Death, 
Resurrection, and Ascension of the Son of God. 
For the world of men had to be prepared for this 
great Gift, as the body of Adam had been prepared. 
The mission of God the Son to the world was to a 
world of men alienated from God by sin. " God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 
This reconciliation commenced at the moment of the 
Incarnation, progressed in the sinless life of the 
Saviour, was inaugurated in the Crucifixion, con- 
summated in the Resurrection, manifested in the 
Ascension. " To-day (said St. Chrysostom, preach- 
ing on Ascension Day) reconciliation with God was 
completed for the race of men ; to-day the long-con- 
tinued enmity was abolished ; the long war was 
ended. To-day a wonderful peace returned never 
before expected." 

St. John in the text speaks of the whole action of 
the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension as "the 
glorifying" of Jesus. It completed the work of rec- 

* St. Cyprian, Ep. Ixxiv. 



1 86 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

onciliation, so far as the Lord was the doer of it. 
His mission was to an alienated world of men to 
reconcile them to God. Thereupon followed the 
mission of the Holy Spirit. His mission was to a 
reconciled world — a world prepared for His Advent 
by " the glorifying" of God the Word. Hitherto 
He had been working, but it was from without (so 
to speak) — in the exterior ; He had been a guide, a 
support from without.* But his relation to man 
was now to be changed. " He is with you (said the 
Lord), and shall bef in you." The parable of the 
Prodigal Son speaks of the Restoration of the Robe 
which had been lost ; " bring forth the first Robe and 
put it on him." And the still later parable, spoken 
on the last day of the Lord's ministry, teaches us 
the awful doom of the one who, having had the 
opportunity of being clothed upon, is found naked. X 
What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ in mani- 
fold abundance, but it may be lost again, therefore, 
" Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his gar- 
ments lest he walk naked." § 

When, therefore, the Lord was glorified, when 
the entrance of a Man into the innermost Presence 
of God in Heaven proved manifestly that the recon- 
ciliation between God and man was complete ; then, 
and not till then, the Gift, the unspeakable Gift, the 
Gift of the Holy Ghost, was given to the Church, 
and to the individual members of the Church. This 
was signified seemingly by the appearance like as of 

* See Appendix HH. 

f St. John 14 : 17. The future is adhered to as the reading of many 
first-class mss. and versions, and of the Greek Fathers. 

t Revelation 16 : 15. § St. Matt. 22 : 11. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 187 

fire. For, as St. Chrysostom says, the word trans- 
lated " cloven" means rather divided from one com- 
mon root ; as if there were at first one common mass 
from which spikelets, or tongues, were separated to 
each head. This would typify at once the indwell- 
ing of the Holy Spirit in the Church, as one Body, 
and also in each individual member of the Church. 

But when we say that the Holy Spirit was not 
thus previously given, we must remember that we 
speak of a quite new relation set up as at this time ; 
it is not that His operations had not been before as 
widely extended, but they were of a different char- 
acter. 

His work, we have said, is to carry on to com- 
pletion what the Word has inaugurated. At the 
same time He is intimately connected with the Hu- 
manity of God the Son, and extends the benefits 
thereof to mankind. By His operation the Incarna- 
tion took place. The Word was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost. Before the commencement of His 
Ministry, the Lord Jesus was visibly anointed by the 
descent upon Him of the Holy Spirit ; it was 
through the Eternal Spirit that He offered Himself 
without spot to God. All this Avas for our sakes. 
He that brought about the Incarnation is He that 
extends the Incarnation to us through the Sacra- 
ments. St. Athanasius * is bold to say (and other 
fathers say much the same) : " The descent of the 
Holy Spirit (after His Baptism) did not convey any 
sort of advantage to the Word, but it was for our 
sanctification, that we might be partakers of His 

* Opera, Patavii, 1777, Tom. i., 356 ; Orat. I. c. Arianos, §47. 



188 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

unction." ' When He received the Spirit, we 
became from Him capable of receiving the Spirit." 
So, again, if it be " by the Eternal Spirit that Christ 
offered Himself without spot to God," it is by the 
operation of the same Spirit that there is produced 
in man a hatred of sin, as God in that sacrifice is 
seen to hate sin. Thus throughout in the New Cre- 
ation the Holy Spirit carries on to perfection the 
work of the Word. 

First, in the Church at large : He is the Author of 
the Hypostatic Union between the two natures of our 
Blessed Lord ; He is the Author of the Mystical Union 
between Christ and the Church ; He is the Author 
of the Sacramental Union of the members of the Mys- 
tical Body with their Head and with each other. 
" All have been made to drink into one Spirit." 

Here, once more, is there a direct Divine interven- 
tion in the course of human events, though it is but 
the result of the intervention in the mystery of the 
Incarnation. The intervention in the Incarnation 
was secret and known only to a few [as we now are 
beginning to celebrate],* but the Christian Church 
was organized publicly in Jerusalem (which is the 
mother of us all) by a definite intervention publicly 
recognized at the time by representatives " of every 
nation under heaven." Thus runs the record, 
' There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout 
men, from every nation under heaven. Now when 
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, 
and were confounded, because that every man heard 
them speak in his own language." The result of 
what they saw and heard, and of the sermon preached 

* This lecture was delivered on March 24th. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 189 

by St. Peter was that "the same day were added 
unto [the little flock of one hundred and twenty] 
about three thousand souls. And the Lord was con- 
tinually adding, day by day, to the Church those 
who were in a state of salvation." * 

Thus was there formed an elect body, the King- 
dom of God, the Church, which should go on and 
prosper and gather in the world. Of old, for the 
sake of the world, there was an elect body, the family 
of Jacob, the children of Israel, to keep alive the 
knowledge of God and to be the means of His Reve- 
lation to the world. Within this elect body there 
was another body who were to be a special protest 
against worldly and carnal aims and desires. The 
whole tribe of Levi were chosen in lieu of the first- 
born to draw near unto God and to minister to Him. 
Among these, again, there was one chosen family of 
priests. The one great blessing granted to the 
privileged tribe of Levi was, that f they "had no 
part nor inheritance with his brethren ; the Lord is 
his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God 
promised him." This, then, was the continual cry 
of a Levite, "Thou art my portion, O Lord.";); 
" The Lord is my portion, saith my soul," was the 
deep consolation of the priest prophet, § when his 
nation was captive and his land laid desolate. When 
the Levite psalmist [ was in poverty and sickness, 
and his faith was for a while disturbed, because God 
had not given him health and wealth, then his eyes 

* Acts 2:56, 41, 47. 

f Deuteionomy 10 : 9 ; 12 : 12 ; 14 : 27, 29, etc. 

% Psalm 119 : 57. § Lamentations 3 : 24. 

I Psalms 73 : 2, 17, 26. 



190 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

were opened to his real position when " he went into 
the Sanctuary of God," and he felt he could say 
what none but one of his tribe could, " My flesh and 
my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, 
and my portion forever ;" he had that which none 
could take from him. 

As, then, the Levites were to be a consecrating 
nucleus of the Jewish Church, and as the Jewish 
Church was to be a separate or elect body for the 
sake of the Gentile world, so now the Christian 
Church was to be the consecrating medium of the 
whole world. As said the Lord, " The Kingdom 
of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took 
and hid in three measures of meal until the whole 
was leavened." * 

This, then, is the last Divine intervention, the last 
dispensation in this world, preparing for the final 
Revelation, the eighth day of eternity. Hence the 
Gospel times in which we live are spoken of in 
Scripture as " the last times," or the " latter da}'s. " 
Therefore the beautiful Christian poet f calls Chris- 
tians " the people of the evening," the evening of 
the world ; therefore Tertullian spoke of the Gospel 
times as the setting age, or the age of sunset, the 
evening of the world. This is the reason why the 
Church has ever sung the Magnificat and the Nunc 
Dimittis at even-song, in memory of the light of the 
Gospel illumining the evening of the world, in prep- 
aration for the morning of eternity. 

Of these times the prophets had said : " Also upon 



* St. Matthew 13 : 33. 

f Prudentius-Psychomachia, 376, ed. Arevali, Tom. ii., p. 621. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 191 

the servants and upon the handmaids in those days 
will I pour out My Spirit," * words that St. Peter 
claimed as referring to the great outpouring at Pente- 
cost at the Birth of the Church. All Christians, 
then, now have " the promise of the Father" in far 
fuller abundance, and in more intimate relation than 
the priests and Levites of old, who could claim the 
Lord their God for their inheritance. 

Not only is the Holy Spirit the author of, and 
means whereby, the corporate unity is maintained, 
but He is the Life of the Church, whereby She grows, 
grows with the increase of God ; " grows in wis- 
dom and stature and in favor with God and man." 

" Grows in wisdom." " He shall take of mine 
and shall show it unto you," said the Lord. " He 
will guide you into all truth. He shall glorify Me." 
Gradually does He reveal the full majesty of the 
Son, guiding into all the Truth those who follow 
His leading ; and guiding, not without effort on Her 
part, the Church, " into the Truth in all its parts." f 
Hence He guides the councils of the Church into the 
declaration of the Truth. " It seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost and to us," X sa id the first Apostolic 
Council. The Church is a living Body, and there 
must be advance and growth. St. Vincent of Lerins 
likens the growth of doctrine to a living body. 
There must be advancement, he says,§ " But yet in 
such sort that it may be truly an increase in faith, 
and not a change. ... In this let the religion of 
our souls imitate the nature of our bodies, which, 

* Joel 2 : 29. f Westcott, in loc. % Acts 15 : 28. 

§ Commonitorium, cap. 23. 



I92 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

although with process of time they develop and un- 
fold their proportions, yet remain the same that they 
were. . . . Christian doctrine must follow these 
laws of growth, to wit, that with years it wax more 
sound, with time it become more ample, with con- 
tinuance it be more exalted, yet that it remain incor- 
rupt and entire, and continue full and perfect in the 
proportion of each of its parts, and, as it were, with 
all its members and proper senses." He alone Who 
of old spake by the prophets, and in these last times 
inspired the Apostle and Evangelists, can lead the 
Church and the various members of the Church into 
a full understanding of Holy Scripture. Year by 
year, more and more, do the beauties and teaching 
unfold themselves ; constantly should we pray with 
the Church in the Canticles, " Come, Thou South 
Wind, and blow upon my garden, that the spices 
thereof may flow out." * 

Again, the Living Church must grow in stature. 
She must be aggressive, seeking to bring all within 
the fold ; with utmost charity seeking to win, but at 
the same time Avhen necessary " mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strongholds ;" because 
she has " the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
of God." Still the loving persuasion of invitation 
must be, " Let him that thirsteth come ; and who- 
soever will, let him take the water of life freely." f 

The Holy Spirit also makes the Church, the Bride, 
more and more pleasing in God's sight. By the 
operation and indwelling of the Jloly Spirit does the 
Son " sanctify and cleanse the Church with the wash- 

* Canticles 4:16. f Revelation 22 : 17. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 193 

ing of water by the Word, that He might present it 
to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or 
wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy 
and without blemish." * He is the " Spirit of Holi- 
ness," therefore His indwelling is the first reason 
why one of the titles of the Church is Holy. Even 
in the darkest times there is a remnant, as there ever 
has been. The Holy Spirit, indeed, in Scripture, 
warns us that there will be great falling away. We 
have no sure warranty that the candlestick will not 
be removed from any particular Church. If, then, the 
Spirit is grieved and quenched, that particular 
Branch will dwindle and die. If the sap flows not 
into it from its abiding in the True Vine, " it is cast 
forth as a branch, and is withered ; and they gather 
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
burned, "f But this does not mar the life of the 
Church, though it cripples her extension. We must 
remember, in our conceit, that God sees not as man 
sees. Elijah said, " I, even I only, remain ;" and 
Cardinal Newman could say, " I look into this liv- 
ing, busy world and see no reflection of its Crea- 
tor ;" but God saw seven thousand where Elijah 
saw none, and the fault may be in our own 
eyes. 

Here, then, we must say one word about such 
bodies as have separated themselves from the Com- 
munion of the Church. The individual members, 
if they have been baptized, are so far forth members 
of the Church. When they seek admission into the 
Communion of the Church they are not rebaptized. 

* Ephesians 5 : 26, 27. f St. John 15 : 6. 

13 



194 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

As St. Vincent of Lerins* says, such a practice is 
" against the Divine Scripture, against the rule of 
the Universal Church, against the mind of all the 
Priests of the time, against the custom and tradition 
of the fathers." But it is also the universal teach- 
ing that the Holy Spirit is not " given" outside the 
Church as an indwelling Power, f There is no prom- 
ised indwelling of the Spirit. The Shechinah is 
confined to the One Temple. But He " bloweth 
where He listeth," and we have no right to limit 
His gracious influences. We admire and are thank- 
ful for the good which God is pleased to do by their 
means, but we cannot acquiesce in their separation, 
we must do all in our power to entice them back to 
the one flock under the one Shepherd, " endeavor- 
ing to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
peace. For there is One Body and One Spirit, even 
as we are called in One hope of one calling, One 
Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father 
of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in us 
■all."* 

\ But the gracious indwelling in the Church is ex- 
tended to all the faithful members of the Church. 
The central mass, like as of fire, was cloven, divided 
out, so as to sit on the head of each individual mem- 
ber. The golden pipes, whereby the oil of grace is 
derived to each member, are the means of grace ap- 
pointed by Christ and employed by the Holy Ghost. 
In this, too, as elsewhere, the Holy Ghost carries 
forward to perfection the work which Christ com- 



* Commonitorium, cap. 6. f See Appendix II. 

\ Ephesians 4 : 3-5. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 95 

menced. Each means of grace, each sacrament, de- 
rives its efficacy from the assured operation of the 
Holy Ghost. Each means of grace is a golden pipe 
whereby the grace, stored in the Incarnate Saviour 
as in a Reservoir, is conveyed to the members of 
His Body. 

In the initiating Sacrament of Baptism it is " by 
one Spirit (that) we are baptized into one bod) 7 ;" * 
it is "the washing of Regeneration and renewing of 
the Holy Ghost." f This is now accepted as the 
interpretation of the Lord's words to Nicodemus : 
M Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. " Hooker 
truly said : " Of all the ancient there is not one to 
be named that ever did otherwise either expound or 
allege the place, than as implying external Bap- 
tism." J It is true that St. Cyprian and others held 
it to include Confirmation, which they regarded as 
a Baptism of the Spirit ; but this did not exclude 
external Baptism with water. 

The Holy Ghost prepared the Body natural of 
Christ at the Incarnation ; it is He who cleanses us 
from the taint received at our natural birth and then 
incorporates us into the immaculate Body of Christ. 
These are the " two ends proposed in Baptism," § 
a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness, 
' This, then, is to be born again of water and the 
Spirit, for death is effected in the water, but our Life 
is wrought through the Spirit." Therefore, in the 
piayer in the Baptismal service, we pray that the 

* 1 Corinthians 12 : 13. f Titus 3 : 5. 

% Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," Book V., chap, lix., § 3. 
§ St. Basil, loc. cit. Appendix BB. 



I96 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Holy Spirit may be given to the Catechumen in order 
that he may be born again.* So Tertullian, beauti- 
fully referring to the first chapter of Genesis, says : 
" Water was the first to produce that which had 
life, that it might be no wonder in Baptism if waters 
know how to give life . . . the Spirit of God who 
hovered over the waters in the beginning would 
continue to linger over the waters of the baptized." 

But, as has been said, the Holy Spirit continually 
carries on to perfection the work commenced by 
God the Son. In the Church at large this is seen in 
comparing the four records of the Gospel with the 
Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and these histories 
again with the Epistles following. 

It is noteworthy that the three earlier Evangelists 
record but little of the doctrine about the work of 
the Holy Spirit, though there is emphatic reference 
to Him in each of the three records. St. Matthew 
gives the Baptismal formula in the Commission to 
the Apostles at the end of the great forty days. 
This is the essence of all creeds, as St. Basil inti- 
mates. "As we believe on the Father, and the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, so also are we baptized into 
the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. The confession goes before leading to 
salvation, while baptism follows after setting the seal 
on our assent. ." f 

St. Mark records in direct terms the indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit in the disciples. " Take no thought 
beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye pre- 
meditate, but whatsoever shall be given } 7 ou in that 

* See Appendix KK. f 4i De Sancto Spiritu," cap. 12, ad Jin. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. I97 

hour, that speak ye ; for it is not ye that speak, but 
the Holy Ghost." * 

St. Luke f has the warning against the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost, " unto him that blasphem- 
eth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." 

It is mainly in the record by St. John, written 
toward the end of his life, when Christianity had 
been preached for more than sixty years, that we 
read of the teaching about the Holy Spirit in our 
Lord's discourse at the mysterious Last Supper. J 
" The Comforter, Which is the Holy Ghost, Whom 
the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your remem- 
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you." " Him 
I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit 
of Truth, Which proceedeth from the Father, He 
shall testify of Me." " He will guide you into all 
Truth. He shall glorify Me ; for He shall take of 
Mine, and shall show it unto you." 

The Book of the Acts is a record of how these say- 
ings of the Lord have been fulfilled. So much so 
that Professor Westcott has well said : § " The Book 
of the Acts is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, the 
typical record of His action. There we see how, at 
each stage of the building of the Church, the per- 
sonal direction of the Spirit rules the conduct of its 
earthly founders. The voice of the Spirit showed 
to St. Philip, to St. Peter, to St. Paul, the widening 
limits of their teaching, and in some cases the very 
details of their fortunes." In similar fashion has 

* St. Mark 13 : 11. f St. Luke 12 : 10. 

% St. John 14 : 16, 17, 23-26 ; 15 : 26 ; 16 : 7-14. 
§ " Historic Faith," p. 106. 



I98 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Bishop Harvey Goodwin written : * "If the Gospels 
can be rightly described as the history of the min- 
istry of the Son, the Acts of the Apostles may be 
suitably described as the history of the ministry of 
the Holy Ghost/' 

In the Epistles we seem to be breathing the very 
Breath of the Spirit. Each Apostle takes for granted 
that his hearers have the Spirit and are in the Spirit, 
and claim this for themselves. 

Then, for the individual, it is taken for granted 
that none is perfect in his Christian privileges until 
he has received the Holy Spirit by the laying on of 
hands. This is seen clearly in the case of the Samar- 
itans, who had been baptized by a Deacon ; " they 
were only in the position of persons who had been 
baptized ;" therefore St. Peter and St. John went 
down to confirm them. It is evident that, as St. 
Paul went about and found "disciples," who pro- 
fessed to have been baptized, he made it his custom 
to ask, as he did at Ephesus, " Have ye received the 
Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" 

The reception of the Holy Spirit was typified by 
the use of holy oil. When St. John spoke of this 
and said : " Ye have an Unction from the Holy 
One," he probably spoke in simile. But the use of 
oil in Confirmation commenced very early. Tertul- 
lian speaks of it at the end of the second century. 
Theophilus of Antioch (a.d. 180) likens Confirmation 
to the finishing porcelain with glaze, or burnishing 
metal. " What work (he says) has either ornament 
or beauty unless it be anointed and burnished. The 

* " Foundations of the Creed," p. 249. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1 99 

air and all that is under heaven is in a certain sort 
anointed by light and spirit, and are you unwilling 
to be anointed with the oil of God ? We are called 
Christians on this account, because we are anointed 
with the oil of God." * So, too, in the fifth century, 
St. Cyril of Alexandria writes : " The use of oil 
finishing to perfection has been before laid upon 
those who are justified in Christ by Holy Baptism." 

This, then, may perhaps lead us to see a reason 
for the name given to Confirmation in Dionysius of 
Areopagus. He calls the rite " the perfecting unc- 
tion," and says : " The perfecting unction of holy oil 
makes him that has been initiated (baptized) well- 
pleasing ; for the sacred perfection of the divine 
regeneration unites things that were initiated to the 
Supreme Spirit." As the very word " perfecting" 
is ascribed to the Holy Spirit by St. Basil, it may 
have the meaning here that the rite of unction is the 
communication of the Perfecting Spirit, and not 
merely that it is the perfecting of that which was 
commenced in Baptism. 

In respect of the laying on of hands, commonly 
called Confirmation, we have no need to ask how 
the Holy Spirit is connected with this rite. The 
careful student of Scripture will at once recognize 
the truth of what the present Archbishop of Canter- 
bury has well said : " No thread of language and 
history is more distinct than that which connects 
Christ's promise of the coming of the Paraclete to 
be an Indwelling Power in all His chosen ones, 
with the institute of the Laying on of Hands by the 

* Ad Autolycum, I., xii. 



200 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Apostles. On the Twelve He came with a visible 
Epiphany, as every analogy would expect. On 
Christians at large He came in this plainest sim- 
plicity. ' I will send Him unto you. They laid 
their hands on them. He fell on them.' And ever 
after, in the letters of the Apostles, such is the fre- 
quency of verbal and phraseological allusion to the 
custom, that, as a scholar once remarked to me, 
1 Confirmation seems more present to the earliest 
Christian habits of thought than Baptism itself.' " * 
Confirmation has always been traced back to the 
time when Philip the Deacon had baptized the 
Samaritans, and St. Peter and St. John, the two 
chiefest Apostles, were sent down from Jerusalem 
to confirm them and convey the Gift of the Spirit. 
It is quite true that often in Apostolic times the ex- 
traordinary graces were conveyed as well as the 
ordinary, f but this does not seem to have been 
always the case even in those days. For St. Paul 
asked certain who were regarded as disciples %l if 
they had received the Holy Ghost since they be- 
lieved." Had there been at all times a bestowal of 
extraordinary graces, the question need not have 
been asked ; the Presence would have been mani- 
fested, and the lack of manifestation would have 
testified to lack of the Gift. Confirmation, then, is 
the one especial rite whereby the Gift of the Holy 
Ghost, the promise of the Father, the indwelling of 
the Holy Ghost, is communicated to the Baptized 
Christian.;); Ordinarily, the reconciliation between 

* " The Seven Gifts," p. 87. See Appendix MM. 

f See Appendix LL. % See Appendix MM. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 201 

the individual and Almighty God is granted in Bap- 
tism, in and by that sacrament union with Christ is 
effected before the communication of the Gift of the 
Holy Ghost. In one instance was it otherwise, but 
for this there was a special reason. To prove that 
it was God's will that the Gentiles should be ad- 
mitted into the Church, the Gift was bestowed on 
the centurion Cornelius and his friends before Bap- 
tism. But ordinarily, just as the Holy Ghost was 
not given before that Jesus was glorified in the rec- 
onciliation of man with God, so also the Gift is not 
given to any particular man before he is prepared 
for it by Baptism. 

Next in the Holy Eucharist it is the Holy Ghost 
that causes the dead elements to be instinct with 
life and life-giving properties, conveying to the faith- 
ful Christian the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus. 
In the Eastern Church this is felt so strongly that, 
in the Consecration prayer, there is always a distinct 
invocation of the Holy Spirit, or prayer for His de- 
scent upon the elements of Bread and Wine, to make 
them the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus.* You, 
here, are happy in having such an Invocation, though 
brief, in your book ; there is no need here to excuse 
its absence. In the earliest English Prayer-Book 
there was a special Invocation which is now omitted. 
But there is no trace of any such in the ancient litur- 
gies of Italy, whether of Milan or Rome, and no 
fault was charged against them in early times. But 
whether this Invocation be present or not, all are 
agreed that it is by the operation of the Holy Ghost 

* See Appendix NN. 



202 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

that the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is com- 
plete. 

Here, again, then, just as it was by the operation 
of the Holy Spirit that the Incarnation took place, 
so by the operation of the same Spirit the Incarna- 
tion is continually extended to the individual menu 
bers of the Church, by means of the Sacrament of 
the Lord's Body and Blood, whereby their union 
with Christ is maintained and His Likeness in them 
developed. 

The like must be acknowledged of all the means 
of grace whereby the life of the Church is maintained, 
and the Church grows, " and the hills are covered 
with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof are 
like the goodly cedar-trees, whereby she stretches 
out her branches unto the sea (of the world) and her 
boughs unto the river (of the water of Life)." 
Whereby also each individual member gradually 
ceases to be a " babe in Christ," and increases and 
grows up " unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ." Whereby the 
individual life gradually extends itself into the cor- 
porate life of the whole Body of the Church, so that 
we, " speaking the Truth in love, may grow up into 
Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, 
from Whom the whole Body fitly joined together 
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, 
according to the effectual working in the measure of 
every part, maketh increase of the Body unto the 
edifying of itself in love." * 

Therefore, when the ministers and stewards of 

* Ephesians 4 : 12, 16. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 203 

Christ's mysteries are ordained, consecrated, and 
set apart for their work, we say, " Receive the Holy 
Ghost for the office and work of a Priest or a Bishop 
in the Church of God." Some, indeed, have raised 
a superficial objection to the form of words, but at 
the same time suggested a prayer,* " Pour down, 
O Father of Lights, the Holy Ghost on this Thy ser- 
vant," which is only a variation of form and not of 
substance. It is true that in your Ordinal, brethren, 
an alternative form is given in the ordination of a 
Priest, but not of a Bishop, so that there can be no 
valid objection to the form of words. For if the 
form be wrong, it cannot be right to use it once. 

In every branch and part of the Christian life the 
Holy Spirit is the Source of strength and action. 
But His grace is not irresistible ; St. Paul knew this 
when he intimated that it was possible to receive the 
grace of God in vain. We must know it alas ! too 
well in our consciences, when we feel " that it is hard 
to kick against the pricks." 

But we must be one with Christ, in Christ ; His 
life must be our Life, before His work avails for us. 
True, " in His own Person, He fulfilled the Will of 
God. True, in His own Person He fulfilled the 
destiny of man. And whosoever is in Him shares 
the virtue of His life." \ He is the " head of every 
man," as the Second and last Adam. He suffered 
as our Representative, He is glorified as our Repre- 
sentative. But there is a subjective side — there must 

* The commissioners of William III., in 1689. On this question see 
the admirable treatise of my friend, Canon Churton, " Defence of the 
English Ordinal," London, 1872. 

f Westcott, " Historic Faith," p. 132. 



204 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

be a likeness to Him wrought out in our cold and 
hard marble nature. " Even the Passion of Christ 
is in vain until we have part in it, until the shadow 
of His Agony creeps over our Soul, until our old 
man is crucified with Him, and from the ashes of 
our dead selves there rises the new man which after 
Christ is created in Righteousness and true holi- 
ness." * 

By Christ are we redeemed, by the Holy Spirit are 
we gradually sci7ictifted. ' The righteousness where- 
by here we are justified is perfect, but not inherent ; 
that whereby we are sanctified is inherent, but not 
perfect. ' ' + VVe must yield ourselves to the gracious 
influences of the Holy Spirit, that He may produce 
in us " the fruit of the Spirit." But fruit implies 
the co-operation of tzvo. The fruit % oi the Spirit re- 
quires the co-operation of the man, the Christian 
man himself. That he may " have his fruit unto 
holiness," he must give his own earnest and diligent 
co-operation. " The love of God is shed abroad by 
the Holy Ghost, Which is given unto us," that we 
may work, not from fear of punishment, but from 
the love of righteousness ; but the source of it all, 
and of the " imitation of Christ," to which it all tends, 
is the Holy Ghost Himself indwelling in the man. 

In the New Creation He gradually prepares the 
elect, the members of Christ in this world, by pro- 
gressive sanctification, for the " glorifying righteous- 
ness, perfect and inherent, in the world to come. "^ 

Thus we draw to an end. We have been admitted 



* Lias, " The Atonement," p. 68. % See Appendix OO. 

f Hooker, Sermon II., § 3. 



THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 205 

to speak of the glorious circle of love ind mercy, 
proceeding from God and returning to God, em- 
bracing the creature in its unceasing flow of infinite 
condescension. The eternal purpose of the Creator 
to unite to Himself the creature in an infinity of 
ever-growing and developing blessedness, could not 
be frustrated by the rebellious caprice of the crea- 
ture. True, the rebellion called forth a new phase 
of mercy to meet and overcome the wrong done ; 
but the eternal purpose could not be thwarted. The 
intimate union of the Incarnation took place, blessing 
the creature with infinite possibilities, and the Cre- 
ator not only was made flesh, but through the Eter- 
nal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God on 
our behalf. Then, in order that His Presence should 
not be limited to one spot, and to the friendship of a 
few, it was expedient that He should depart as Man, 
and that His Universal Presence should be effected 
by the Holy Spirit. When, therefore, Jesus was 
glorified and man was reconciled to God, " being 
by the Right Hand of God exalted, and having re- 
ceived the Promise of the Father, He shed forth" 
His Spirit on His Church and on the several mem- 
bers of it. He was to apply and perfect the work 
which the Son had done. He was to guide them, not 
drive or force them, but to guide them, requiring 
action, willing action, on their part, into truth of 
every kind. He was to work out in them the image 
of the Creator once more, in which man had been 
formed at the first, and prepare them to see their 
Saviour and their God as He is. 

By tire coming of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, 
deliver us. 



206 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

How marvellously does the Truth open out before 
us as we meditate. The faithful Christian claims all 
Truth of every kind, everywhere, as part of the 
revelation of Him Who is the Truth. He has no 
fear of scientific discoveries, he knows that if they 
are true, they must be part of God's Truth, and that 
if he is patient, he will know them to be so in time. 
For it has been well said, rather in the mind of St. 
Vincent of Lerins, as already quoted : "In this sense 
the Christian Revelation of God claims to be both 
final and progressive ; final, for Christians know but 
one Christ and do not look for another ; progressive, 
because Christianity claims each new truth as enrich- 
ing our knowledge of God and bringing out into 
greater clearness and distinctness some half -under- 
stood fragment of its own teaching." * 

Here, then, we must stop, conscious of utter in- 
efncienc}^ in attempting to touch, as on the hem of 
the garment, the grandest theme for the adoring 
love of man to contemplate. God grant that not 
one word may have been said contrary to, or at 
variance with, His Truth. If there has been any 
such may the Holy Spirit overrule it for good. 
Where there has been error, may it be corrected ; 
where there is deficiency, may it be supplied. And 
may the good Lord pardon the presumption of His 
servant in attempting to handle so wondrous a mys- 
tery. 

* Aubrey Moore. See also " Science and the Faith," p. 167. 



APPENDIX 



A. PAGE 2. 



Gilbertus Grimand in Liturgia Sac. par. 3 c. 17, multa congerit 
monumenta, quibus ostendit quanta olim esset fidelium devotio erga 
Evangelium In Principio. In aliquibus enim ecclesiis olim legebatur 
post baptismum parvulorum, post viaticum, et post Extremam Unc- 
tionem (S. Benedicti, XIV. De Sacrosancto, Missse Sacrificio, Lib. 
II. cap. xxiv., § 8). 

II est une autre raison qui n'a pas peu contribue a introduire dans 
le rit de la messe, l'evangile selon Saint Jean, c'est la devotion que 
le peuple professait pour cet evangile. Lorsque le pretre descen- 
dait de 'autel on voyait plusieurs personnes s'approcher du sanctu- 
aire et prier le celebrant de lire sur elles ce magnifique dSbut de 
l'evangeliste ; le pretre mettait le bout de l'etole sur leurs tetes, et li- 
sait cet evangile. L'affluence etait quelquefois assez considerable pour 
qu'il ne fut pas possible de se rendre aux desirs de ces personnes 
pieuses d'une maniere individuelle ; alors le pretre recitait collective- 
ment l'evangile pour tous les postulants, et se tenait a l'autel 
{L 'Abbe Migne Encyclopedic Theologique, s.v. " Evangile," p. 571). 

I am indebted for the above references to my kind friend Rev. 
Canon W. Cooke of Chester. See also Le Brun, Explication de la 
Messe, Paris, 1726, Tom. i., p. 687. 



APPENDIX B. PAGE 4. 

The Harmonia Confessionum Fidei, published at Geneva in 1581, 
begins with a section " De Scriptura Sancta, ejusque interpretations " 
The translation of the Harmony printed at Cambridge in 1586 begins 
in the same way. This is because the majority of the " Confessions" 
begin with this article. See Corpus Confessionum, Geneva, 1654. 



208 APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX C. PAGE n. 

In his very excellent lecture on " The Christian Doctrine of the 
Godhead" (delivered in great St. Mary's, Cambridge, England, in 1886, 
and published at Cambridge), Dr. Hicks argues for the Personality 
of God in the following manner (page 5) : 

" These two notions of Infinite Being and of a First Cause do not 
by any means complete the Theistic idea. Nay, if taken by them- 
selves, they would tend, as a great part of human thought has tended, 
rather to pantheism than to theism — to the belief in an all-pervading 
unconscious Deity, immanent in all things, gradually moving on tow- 
ard perfection, according to necessary laws ; human lives, with their 
sorrows and joys, their aspirations and failures, being swept along, as 
in the current of a mighty river, till they are merged and lost in the 
boundless, fathomless ocean of absolute impersonal being. 

" If indeed this were so, that our personal finite existences are to be 
swallowed up in an impersonal infinite existence, from which they are 
supposed to have sprung, two difficulties would have to be met. In 
the first place, conscious personal existence is confessedly a higher 
thing than unconscious existence. How can this noble attribute of 
personality have been caused by that which is impersonal ? And in 
the second place, if it is true, as we believe, that there has been prog- 
ress in the world, that step by step, according to definite law, the 
lower has led up to the higher, till the highest form of life in the visi- 
ble universe has been reached in man, are we to believe that, after 
all, this law of progress is finally to be replaced by a law of degrada- 
tion and that all personal beings are to be lost in an abyss of absolute 
existence, which is not distinguishable in thought from non-existence ? 

" Thus we come to hail with relief the further notion that the First 
Cause is a Personal Being, conscious, intelligent, free." 



APPENDIX D. PAGE 13. 

" The truth for which they contended, which was enshrined in their 
sacred writings, was that the ' Father is God, the Son is God, and the 
Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three gods but one God.' 
But the Fathers do not treat this doctrine merely as a revealed mys- 
tery, still less as something which complicates the simple teaching of 
Monotheism, but as the condition of rationally holding the Unity of 
God. ' The Unity which derives the Trinity out of its own self,' says 
Tertullian {Adversus Praxeam, cap. iii.) ' so far from being destroyed 



APPENDIX. 209 

is actually supported by it.' 'We cannot otherwise think of One 
God,' says Hippoiytus {Contra Noettim, § xiv.), ' but by truly believing 
in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' ' The Supreme and only God,' says 
Lactantius {Institutiones, IV. 29) ' cannot be worshipped except 
through the Son. He who thinks that he worships the Father only, in 
that he does not worship the Son also, does not worship the Father.' 
'Without the Son the Father is not,' says Clement of Alexandria 
(Stromata, V. 1), ' for in that He is a Father, He is the Father of the Son, 
and the Son is the true teacher about the Father.' So Origen argues 
{De Principiis, I. ii., § 10) : ' If God had ever existed alone in simple 
unity and solitary grandeur, apart from some object upon which from 
all eternity to pour forth His love, He could not have been always 
God. His love, His Fatherhood, His very Omnipotence would have 
been added in time, and there would then have been a time when He 
was imperfect. The Fatherhood of God must be coeval with His Om- 
nipotence ; for it is through the Son that the Father is Almighty.' 
This was the line of argument afterward developed by St. Athanasius 
when he contended against the Arians that the Son was the reality or 
truth of the Father, without whom the Father could not exist {Adver- 
sus Arianos, i., § 20) ; and by St. Augustine when he argues that love 
implies one who loves and one who is loved, and love to bind them 
together {De Trinitate, viii. 10 and ix. 2). Even one so unphilo- 
sophically minded as Irenaeus (Adversus Hcereses, IV. iv. 1, 2) cannot 
but see in the Christian doctrine of the relation of the Father and the 
Son the solution of the difficulty about the infinity of God : ' Immen- 
sus Pater in Filio mensuratus ; mensura Palris, Filius.' 

" While philosophy with increasing hopelessness was asking, How 
can we have a real unity which shall not be a barren and dead unity, 
but shall include differences ? Christianity, with its doctrine of God, 
was arguing that that which was an unsolved contradiction for non- 
Christian thought was a necessary corollary of the Christian Faith" 
(Aubrey Moore in Lux Mundi, p. 92). 



APPENDIX F. PAGE 16. 

We must remember that the beautiful interpretation put by the Lat- 
in Fathers upon a very difficult saying of our Blessed Lord is proba- 
bly untenable. When the Jews asked Him, "Who art Thou?" 
(St. John 8 : 25), His answer has been explained by the Latin 
Fathers thus: "I am the beginning, which am speaking to you." 

14 



210 APPENDIX. 

Cornelius a Lapide commences his note thus : " St. Augustine, Bede 
often, Rupert, Bernard, and St. Ambrose take the word ' beginning ' 
to be the nominative meaning, 1 am the beginning." This arises 
from the fact that both the words which are used here in the Latin 
versions are neuter, principitun and initium, and though the trans- 
lator might have intended them as accusative, others ignorant of the 
Greek regarded them as nominative, which gives an easier sense. 

The Greek Fathers, to whom surely we should look for an explana- 
tion of a difficult Gieek construction, rather treat the sentence "asa 
sad exclamation, which is half interrogative, Why do I so much 
as speak to you ?" (Dr. Westcott in loc). 



APPENDIX F. PAGE 46 AND PAGE 61. 

Luthardt in note 17 to Lecture III. cites a passage from a letter of 
Johann v. Muller, in 1782 : " Since I have been in Cassel I have 
been reading ancient authors in their chronological order, and mak- 
ing extracts from them when any remarkable facts stiuck me. I do 
not know why, two months ago, I took it into my head to read the 
New Testament, before my studies had advanced to the age when it 
was written. How shall I describe to you what I found therein ! I 
had not read it for many years, and was prejudiced against it befoie 
I took it in hand. The light which struck Paul with blindness on his 
way to Damascus was not more strange, more surprising to him than 
it was to me when I suddenly discovered the fulfilment of all hopes, 
the highest perfection of philosophy, the explanation of all revolutions, 
the key to all the seeming contradictions of the ph) sical and moral 
world. . . . The whole world seemed ordered for the sole purpose 
of furthering the religion of the Redeemer, and if this religion is not 
divine, I understand nothing at all" (Translation published at Edin- 
burgh, 1888, p. 354)- 



APPENDIX G. PAGE 47. 

It has been pointed out (Mason's " Faiihof the Gospel," p. Si), that 
the preposition may be translated into " Let Us make man into Our 
image ;" this would imply " that a higher potency was conferred on 
an already existing thing." Any such development of interpretation 
is valuable. 

The Septuagint, however, translate the two prepositions "in Our 



APPENDIX. 211 

image, after Our likeness," by the same Greek word Kara. The 
Vulgate and Vetus Itala combine the two expressions under one prep- 
osition, "ad imaginem et similitudinem." Some of the Latin 
fathers have secundum, while St. Ambrose once (de officiis Minis- 
trorum, I, xxviii.) has ad imaginem secundum similitudinem. See 
Sabatier in loc. 

As the Septuagint has only one preposition it may perhaps be 
open to question whether the not infrequent confusion of V and k' in 
Hebrew have not here caused a variation of preposition, which did 
not originally occur. 

APPENDIX H. PAGE 50. 

The opening paragraph of the Essay is here given : 
"In attempting to speak of such a mystery as the Gospel of 
Creation— that is, of the promise of the Incarnation which was included 
in the Creation of man, it is evident that we have need of watchful 
and reverent care lest we should strive to go beyond the limits which 
bound the proper field of our powers. It is necessary also that we 
should guard ourselves against the danger of using human language, 
not only (as we must do) to represent as clearly as possible our con- 
ceptions of the divine, but as the legitimate foundation for secondary 
conclusions. If, however, we do devoutly recognize that in such spec- 
ulations we are entering on holy ground ; if we steadily refuse to ad- 
mit deductions as absolute which are derived from the conditions un- 
der which we apprehend the Truth made known to us ; then it is well 
for us to look for a time toward the loftiest heights and the deepest 
foundations of faith. If we essay something without ' presumption 
and in submission to the judgment of the Church' — to borrow words 
spokerr -on the subject three hundred years ago — ' and supported by 
the light qf the divine word give expression to our thoughts humbly 
to the best of our power with stammering lips, not only do we not 
offend God, but we do Him reverence, and not unfrequently profit the 
weaker members of the Church.' " 

We must always welcome an investigation undertaken in such a 
spirit by a man like Dr. Westcott. 



APPENDIX I. PAGE 56. 

Some try to raise a little dust to hide the most probable origin of 
the error — viz., the wrong writing of one letter, by speaking of a read- 



212 APPENDIX. 

ing " Ipsum." But this reading does not occur in ancient days. The 
only readings are simply Ipse and Ipsa. When Cornelius a Lapide 
speaks of Ipsum he merely wishes to point out lhat some authorities 
use the neuter in agreement with semen. For he cites St. Leo for 
Ipsum, without particular reference ; whereas all we can find is a ref- 
erence to semen. " Denuncians serpenti futurum semen mulieris, 
quod noxii capitis elationem sua virtute contereret" (Serm. xxi. in 
Nat. Dom. ii., Opera Paris, 1675, Tom. i , p. 145). The statement of the 
Douay note, "others read Ipsum" seems to be without foundation. 

It is very remarkable that no reading Ipsum is found. It is possible 
that a scribe seeing only semen and mulier as antecedents, and not 
knowing the Greek masculine as the authority for Ipse, and seeing 
that the reading could not be ipsum, may have of set purpose changed 
the e into an a, to make better grammar. 

Dr. Pusey (" First letter to the Very Reverend J. H. Newman, D.D., 
London, 1869, p. 382 sq.) gives a long paragraph to the question and 
also gives the summing up of the exhaustive note of De Rossi, the 
very learned Roman Catholic Orientalist, which is as follows : " To 
whomsoever, then, the present reading of the Vulgate belongs, 
whether to the interpreter or (which is more probable) to the 
amanuensis, it ought to be amended from the Hebrew and Greek 
fountain-heads, and to be referred to those passages of the Clementine 
Edition which yet can and ought to be conformed to the Hebrew 
text, and to be amended by the authority of the Church." 



APPENDIX K. PAGE 87. 

It is worth while to note the effect produced on the Eastern mind 
by the various symptoms to which reference has been made in the text 
of Lecture IV., on the question of Mirth. The writer, P. C. 
Mozoomdar, is an Oriental, a friend of Keshub-Chunder Sen ; but the 
book is well worth reading though the writer is outside the Christian 
fold, " feeling after Christ, if haply he may find Him." He 
acknowledges that the fasting of our Blessed Lord was more in ac- 
cordance with Eastern asceticism than His feasting ; but he adds : 
"While the brief day of mutual union lasted, He grudged not His 
disciples a few intervals of freedom and mirth. . . . Christ would 
not be coextensive with human nature, if He did not combine fasts and 
feasts in that many-sided discipline which gives perfection to the diverse 
faculties of man's heart (" Oriental Christ," Boston, 1888, p. 169). 



APPENDIX. 213 

APPENDIX L. PAGE 88. 

In Archdeacon Wilberforce's "Doctrine of the Incarnation" there 
is a long passage devoted to this question of our Lord's sympathy in 
our ignorance. Toward the end he writes : "Since it would be im- 
pious to suppose that our Lord had pretended an ignorance which He 
did not experience, we are led to the conclusion that what He partook 
as man was not actual ignorance, but such deficiency in the means of 
arriving at Truth as belongs to mankind. Without asserting that 
the man Christ Jesus was ignorant, it may be said that he was igno- 
rant, as man, of that which by His other nature was known to Him. 
His growth, then, was no delusion, but a real one ; but the advance 
was in those means of intercourse by which the human mind com- 
municates with the external world. He made trial of those channels 
of communication whereby the children of men are furnished with 
knowledge ; He tested their uncertainty ; He is able to pity those 
who are in like manner " compassed with infirmity" (Chapter IV., 
fourth edition, 1852, p. 84). 



APPENDIX M. PAGE 89. 

" Christ's tenderness was like that of the woman. His courage and 
strength were like those of the hero. His holiness has set the standard 
of all human morality and pureness of motive. His trustfulness was 
that of the child." (" The Oriental Christ," Mozoomdar, p. 138.) 



APPENDIX N. PAGE 90. 

"The strong and fierce language used on occasions by Him who is 
fitly known as the Lamb of God is a difficulty to the mind of the 
' mild Hindu' " (" Oriental Christ" p. 98). It is deeply interesting to 
read these words of one who has thoroughly appreciated and approved 
the denunciation of hypocrisy uttered by our Lord. There is very 
much in this book of deepest interest, showing full sympathy with the 
universal perfection of our Lord's character ; so much so that we 
feel inclined to say, as Bossuet did of Bishop Bull, " Talis cum sis, 
utinam noster esses." The following is very striking: "The testi- 
mony of His life and death makes heavenly realities tenfold more real 
to us. His patience and meekness in suffering are like an everlasting 
rock, which we may hold by when tossed in the tempest of life. His 



214 APPENDIX. 

poverty has sanctified the home of the poor. His love of healing 
fills the earth with innumerable works of benevolence and sympathy, 
and fills with wonderful hope the bedside of the sick and dying. His 
death and resurrection call us to the mansions where He has gone to 
wait for us" (" Oriental Christ," p. 45). 



APPENDIX O. PAGE 95. 

There is a most excellent note on Romans 9 : 5 in the Speaker's 
Commentary by Archdeacon Gifford, who says: "The reference 
to Christ is supported by the unanimous consent of the Anti-Nicene 
fathers. . . . Against this remarkable consent of Christian antiquity 
there is nothing to be said of any weight. Cyril puts into the mouth 
of the Emperor Julian a denial of the reference to Christ only in 
order to affirm the true interpretation." Yet the error of the apostate 
is admitted into the margin as a possible interpretation. No wonder 
that the New Revised Version has been stigmatized as "The Atian- 
ized Version." 



APPENDIX P. PAGE 97. 

The following is a table of the comparative fulness of the Narrative 
of each of the four Evangelists, in various stages of the Lord's life. 
It is perhaps not exactly accurate to small fractions, but it affords a 
sufficient approximation for comparison. As St. Luke's account is 
the longest, it is taken as the standard : 

St. Luke = too 
St. Matthew = 93 
St. John = 73 

St. Mark = 59 

making in all 325 divisions. 

I. Early Years of our Lord's Life till His Baptism, iff. 
St. Matthew, 5. St. Mark, o. St. Luke, 10.5. St. John, o. 
II. From the. Baptism until the Passover in St. John 6 : 1 (less than \). 
St. Matthew, 38. St. Mark, 20. St. Luke, 27.5. St. John, 16.5. 

III. From St. John 6 : I //// Feast of Tabernacles St. John 7, 
(about tV). 

St. Matthew, 11. St. Mark, 13. St. Luke, 4. St. John, C. 

IV. From Feast of Tabernacles till P aim Sunday (about j). 



APPENDIX. 215 

St. Matthew, 6. St. Mark, 3.5. St. Luke, 35. St. John, 19.5. 

V. From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday (about T ). 

St. Matthew, 20.5. St. Mark, 11. 5. St. Luke, 8.5. St. John, 3. 
VI. From Maundy Thursday until Easter Eve (rather more than -7). 

St. Matthew, 10. St. Mark, 8.5. St. Luke, 9.5. St. John, 21.5. 
VII. The Resurrection (-^7). 

St. Matthew, 2.5. St. Mark, 2.5. St. Luke, 5. St. John, 6.5. 



APPENDIX Q. PAGE 100. 

In the lately recovered " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" there 
is a passage which seems to regard the sign of the Cross as being the 
"Sign of the Son of Man" spoken of in St. Matthew 24 : 30 as 
one of the signs of the day of judgment. Speaking of the signs of 
the last day, "The Teaching" says: "And then shall appear 
the signs of the truth : first, the sign of stretching out in heaven ; 
then the sign of the voice of the trumpet ; and the third, the Resurrec- 
tion of the dead." The word used for stretching out is the noun de- 
rived from the verb in Romans 10 : 21, which is a quotation from Isaiah 
65 : 2 : "All day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient 
and a gainsaying people." In the Epistle of Barnabas, said to be 
nearly contemporaneous with " The Teaching," the passage is ex- 
plained of the Cross. This seems to show that " the sign of stretch- 
ing out" is meant to be " the sign of the Cross," spoken of in a man- 
ner which would be understood by Christians and none else. 



APPENDIX R. PAGE 105. 

The passage is referred to by Archdeacon Gifford, and is to be 
found among the fragments of the third bjok De Republica, III., 
xxii., § 16, ed. Nobbe, Lipsise, 1827, p. 1161 : "Est quidem vera 
lex recta ratio, naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, 
sempiterna, quae vocet ad offi -ium jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat, 
q:ae tamen neque probos frustra jubet aut vetat, nee improbos 
jubendo aut vetando movet. . . . Nee erit alia lex Romae, a'ia 
Athenis ; alia rune, alia posthac ; sed et omnes gentes, et orani tem- 
pore, una lex et sempiterm, et immutabilis continebit, unusque erit 
ccmnunis quasi magisteret Imperator omnium Deus. Dlelegis hujus 



2l6 APPENDIX. 

inventor, disceptator, lator ; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet, ac, 
naturam hominis aspernatus hoc ipso luet maximas poenas, etictm si 
csetera supplicia, quae putantur, effugerit." 



APPENDIX S. PAGE 113. 

" It is deeply interesting to observe that the Mishna ordained that 
on the day of killing the Passover, if that day was also a Friday, the 
daily sacrifice was to be killed half an hour after the sixth hour, sac- 
rificed after the seventh ; and the Passover killed half an hour after 
the eighth, and sacrificed half an hour after the ninth hour. If this 
may be relied on, the darkness from the sixth to the ninth must have 
utterly precluded the offering of both sacrifices. Thus did the true 
Continual Offering and Paschal Lamb cause the Mosaic to cease on 
that wondrous day, Dan. 9 : 27" (Freeman, " Principles of Divine 
Service," Part II., p. 299, note). The reference to the Mishna is 
Pesachim, cap. v., § 1. Translation by De Sola and Raphall, Lon- 
don, 1845, p. 107 : Ed. Surenhusius, Tom. ii., p. 150. 



APPENDIX T. PAGE 113. 

" If we go back to the really early fathers, we find therri with one 
voice affirming that the Last Supper was not a Paschal meal at all, 
and some of them complaining of the novel opinion, which introduced 
discrepancies into the plain and easy narrative of the Gospels. Let 
us go seriatim through the primitive evidence which is collected by 
the anonymous Byzantine writer of the Chronicon Pascha/e, from 
works of which little save the name has come down to us. 

" Hippolytus of Portus, near Rome, in his book against all heresies, 
writes as follows : ' I see the matter is one of disputatiousness. For 
he [i.e., the Quartodeciman of whom he is speaking] says thus : The 
Lord performed the passover on this day and suffered ; wherefore I 
also ought to do as the Lord did. But he is astray, not under- 
standing that when the Lord suffered He did not eat the legal pass- 
over. For He was the Passover that was proclaimed beforehand, 
and that was perfected on the appointed day.' 

" Again, in the first book of his lost treatise on the Passover. Hip- 
polytus says : ' Neither in the first nor in the last is it manifest that 
he has not spoken wrongly, because He who of old said beforehand, 



APPENDIX. 217 

" I shall no more eat the Passover," probably supped the Supper 
before the Passover ; but the Passover He ate not, but suffered ; for 
neither was it the time of the eating thereof.' 

" The next witness is Apollinarius of Hierapolis, the town men- 
tioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians along with 
Laodicea. His date is usually given a.d. 170 and onward. His 
words are : ' Some people dispute about these things, suffering a 
pardonable ailment, for ignorance does not require accusation, but 
needs instruction. And they say that on the 14th the Lord ate 
the sheep with His disciples, and suffered on the great day of unleav- 
ened bread, and declare that Matthew says as they opine ; whence 
their opinion is both discrepant from the law, and, according to them, 
the Gospels seem to be at variance.' 

" Last comes Clement of Alexandria, whose language is equally 
plain. In his lost treatise on the Passover he says : ' In the past 
years the Lord used to observe the festival of and eat the Passover 
that was sacrificed by the Jews ; but when He had preached being 
Himself the Passover, the Lamb of God, led as a sheep to the 
slaughter, He immediately taught His disciples the mystery of the 
type on the 13th, on which they ask him, " Where wilt Thou that 
we prepare the Passover for Thee to eat ?" On this day, there- 
fore, both the sanctification of the unleavened bread and the previous 
preparation of the feast used to take place ; whence probably 
John writes that on this day the Disciples, as undergoing previous 
preparation, had their feet washed by the Lord. But our Saviour 
suffered on the next day, being Himself the Passover, being sacrificed 
by the Jews.' 

" And again : ' Consequently on the 14th, when he suffered, the 
chief priests and scribes, on leading Him in the morning to Pilate, 
did not enter into the prsetorium that they might not be polluted, but 
might eat the Passover without hindrance in the evening.' With this 
exact account of the days both all the Scriptures agree and the Gospels 
are in harmony. And the resurrection bears additional testimony. 
At any rate, He rose on the third day, which was the first day of the 
week of the harvest, on which it was the law that the priest should 
offer the sheaf." (" Notes and Dissertations," by A. H. Wratislaw, 
London, 1863, p. 179.) 

This extract gives the earliest testimony with which Irenaeus (iv., 
23), Tertullian (Adv. Judaeos, 10) and Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Try., 
Pars. II., § in, p. 338) agree. In the latter part of the fourth 
century trustworthy tradition (on these smaller points) had died out, 



2l8 APPENDIX. 

and the modern popular view that our Lord did partake of the Paschal 
Supper took its rise. 

See Freeman, " Principles of Divine Service," Part II., Chapter II., 
§ 2 ; also Bishop Ellicott, " Historical Lectures on the Life of Our 
Lord," Lecture VII., 3d ed., 1862, London, p. 32T. 

A summary of many points of the argument may also be found in 
my book on " Fasting Communion," 2d ed., p. 341 seq. 



APPENDIX V. PAGE 113. 

" (Daniel) speaks not of a temporary suspension of sacrifices, but 
of the entire abolition of all which had been offered hitherto : the 
sacrifice with the shedding of blood and the oblation, the unbloody 
sacrifice which was its complement. These the Messiah was to make 
to cease three years and a half after that new covenant began, whether 
this was at first through the ministry of the Baptist or His own. It 
seems to me absolutely certain that our Lord's ministry lasted for 
some period above three years" (Pusey on Daniel, p. 174). 

See also the very valuable treatise, " The Evidential Value of the 
Holy Eucharist," by Rev. G. F. Maclear, D.D , 2d ed., S.P.C.K., 
Part I., Chapter I. 



APPENDIX W. PAGE 114. 

The following volumes will be found useful in the study of the 
doctrine of the Atonement : 

" The Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement," by H. N. Oxenham, 
M.A., 2d ed., London, 1869. This is mainly historical, and therefore 
is valuable. 

"The Atonement," the Congregational Union Lectures for 1875, 
by R. W. Dale, M.A., nth ed., London, 1888. This is an eloquent 
and valuable series of lectures. 

" The Atonement," the Hulsean Lectures for 1883-84, by Rev. 
J. J. Lias, M.A., 2d ed., London, 1888. Four lectures of most con- 
densed matter, and very useful for those who do not desire a long 
treatise. The subjects of the four lectures are : I. Popular Theology 
and Popular Objections. II. Scripture Teaching Regarding Pro- 
pitiation. III. Theories of Propitiation in the Christian Church. 
IV. The Various Aspects of Propitiation. 



APPENDIX. 219 

APPENDIX X. PAGE 121. 

Bishop Pearson (on Creed, Article X., fo. page 364) writes : " In 
vain it is objected that the Scripture saith that our Saviour reconciled 
men to God, but nowhere teacheth that He reconciled God to man ; 
for in the language of the Scripture to reconcile a man to God is in 
our vulgar language to reconcile God to man — that is, to cause him 
who before was angry and offended with him to be gracious and pro- 
pitious to him. As the princes of the Philistines spake of David, 
' Wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master ? Should it 
not be with the heads of these men ? Wherewith shall he reconcile 
Saul, who is so highly offended with him ? Wherewith shall he render 
him gracious and favorable, but by betraying these men unto him ? ' 
As our Saviour adviseth, ' If thou bring thy gift before the altar, and 
there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy 
brother— that is, reconcile thy brother to thyself, whom thou hast 
injured. Render him by thy submission favorable unto thee, who 
hath something against thee, and is offended with thee.' As the 
Apostle adviseth the wife that departeth from her husband to remain 
unmarried or to be reconciled to her husband — that is, to appease and 
get the favor of her husband. In the like manner we are said to be 
reconciled unto God when God is reconciled, appeased, and become 
gracious and favorable unto us. And Christ is said to reconcile us 
unto God when He hath moved and obtained of God to be reconciled 
unto us, when He hath appeased Him and restored us unto His favor. 
Thus when we were enemies we were reconciled to God — that is, 
notwithstanding He was offended with us for our sins, we were 
restored unto His favor by the death of His Son." 



APPENDIX Y. PAGE 139. 

In his excellent work, " Church Doctrine — Bible Truth," Mr. 
Sadler thus introduces his argument (Chapter III.) : 

" The Scripture teaching bearing upon baptism may be summed up 
under the five following heads : 

" 1. In about twelve places in Scripture Christ or His Apostles 
connect salvation with Baptism. 

(i 2. The Christians of the Apostolic Churches are always addressed 
as having been brought into a state of salvation or regeneration at 
their baptism. 



220 APPENDIX. 

" 3. This state of salvation or regeneration does not insure the final 
salvation of those brought into it. On the contrary, the members of 
these churches are always supposed to be in danger of falling into 
sin and liable to be cast away. 

" 4. Those who thus fall away are always assumed to fall from 
grace. They are never for a moment supposed to fall into sin 
because God has withheld grace from them. 

" 5. In no case are baptized Christians called upon to become 
regenerate. They are called upon to repent — to turn to God — to 
cleanse their hands— to purify their hearts; never to become re- 
generate." 

Mr. Sadler as a lad was brought to Baptism and the Church by 
means of a sermon preached at Leeds, England, in 1841, by the late 
Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, having been enticed by curiosity t® 
see and hear an American bishop. 



APPENDIX Z. PAGE 140. 

In his treatise on Baptism Tertullian has gathered many instances 
of the importance attached to wafer among the heathen as well as in 
the Scriptures. " De Baptismo," iii., iv., v., ix. In the ninth 
chapter he sums up all the passages where water is brought into 
some connection with our blessed Lord. He says : " This is the water 
which was continually flowing down for the people from the companion 
Rock. For if the Rock was Christ, without doubt we see Baptism 
blessed by water in Christ. How great is the grace of water before 
God and His Christ for the confirmation of Baptism. Never is 
Christ without water ; if, as is the case, Himself is baptized in water ; 
solemnly inaugurates the first displays of His power in water when a 
guest at the marriage; when He preaches He invites the thirsty to 
His everlasting water ; when He teaches of love He approves the 
cup of water given to the poor among the works of charity ; He 
refreshes His strength at a well ; He walks on the water ; constantly 
sails by water j ministers water to His disciples. He continues His 
witness to Baptism until His Passion ; when He is given over to the 
Cross water intervenes — the hands of Pilate are conscious of it ; when 
He is wounded water breaks forth — the spear of the soldier is con- 
scious of it." 

It is interesting and instructive to read the following from the work 
already quoted " The Oriental Christ," by P. C. Mozoomdar. The 



APPENDIX. 221 

first chapter is headed " The Bathing Christ," and treats of our 
Lord's Baptism. 

" Why did Jesus bathe? Water to the Oriental means perpetual 
blessedness. The rain which fertilizes is God's grace. The stream 
which rustles on is a running source of divine inspiration. We in India 
at various times, have worshipped the God of rain. The confluences of 
our rivers, the mountainous solitudes where they take their rise, and 
the white illimitable expanse where they mingle with the sea, are 
more sacred than we can tell. There is a transcendental sense of 
the divine in them. Power, speed, fruitfulness, beauty, purity, come 
from the river. We Hindus, like our far off ancestors, make offerings 
to the sea, the emblem of eternity. There is no pilgrimage without 
immersion in water. Bathing is ever holy. Over and above the 
morning bath, which renews the body, and is an invariable prelude to 
the daily devotions, we immerse ourselves in water at special times. 
Whenever an Oriental has to purify himself from a personal impurity, 
from a social contamination, from a death in the household ; when- 
ever he has to rise from one stage of religious life to another ; when- 
ever he requires an initiation into higher spiritual life and precept, he 
must bathe." Page 47. 



APPENDIX AA. PAGE 141 

A similar argument may be drawn from the Greek translation of 
Esther 8 : 17. The Hebrew has, " And many people of the land 
became Jews ; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them." The Sepiua- 
gint has, " Many of the Gentiles were circumcised and Judaized, for 
fear of the Jews." If at the time of that translation (probably about 
the middle of the second century, B.C.), there had been any such rite 
as Baptism in use among the Jews, we should expect it to be included 
in the addition made to the Hebrew narrative. As the reference to 
circumcision is an addition by the translators, we must suppose that 
it was regarded by them as the only ceremony necessary for a man 
to become a Jew. 

Philo and Josephus, and the earliest Targum (Onkelos) are silent 
on the question. This will probably bring us down to the end of the 
second century a.d. The first reference seems to be in the Targum 
of Jonathan ; and later on in Maimonides, etc., there is constant 
reference to the ceremony of Baptism. 

It has been argued that the Jews would not have adopted baptism 
from the Christians. This is true. But John, the son of Zacharias, 



222 APPENDIX. 

was not a Christian ; " he that is least in the kingdom of Heaven is 
greater than he." If the Jews adopted it from John the Baptist, 
there would have been no suspicion of following the Nazarenes. 
Such a ceremony is common among Orientals. See Appendix Z. 

No doubt there were continual washings in practice among the 
Jews, in common life as well as in ceremonial purification. But there 
it no certain evidence of Baptism as a ceremony of initiation into the 
Jewish religion in our Lord's day. 



APPENDIX BB. PAGE 143. 

•' And this clearly answers the question, For what reason was water 
joined with the Spirit ? Because there are two ends proposed in Bap- 
tism : on the one hand, to abolish the body of sin, that it should no 
longer bear fruit unto death ; on the other, to live to the Spirit, and 
to bear fruit in sanctification" (St. Basil, De Sancto Spiritu, § 35, 
Benedictine Ed., Tom. iii., p. 29 C). Then, again, a little before he 
discusses the phrase, " They were baptized into Moses," in compari- 
son of Christian Baptism. " What then ? Because they were typically 
baptized into Moses, does it follow that small is the grace of Baptism ? 
Assuredly in this way nothing else of ours would be of importance, 
if we depreciate the dignity of each by their types. . . . The Passion 
of the Lord would not be glorious, since a ram instead of Isaac filled 
the type of the sacrifice. ... A man, then, does just this same thing 
in the case of Baptism who compares the reality with the shadow, 
and sets the things signified side by side with the types themselves, 
and by means of Moses and the sea attempts to tear asunder the 
whole dispensation of the Gospel. For what sort of remission of sins ? 
what kind of renewal of life ? what sort of spiritual grace is given 
by Moses? what kind of death of sin is there to be found? Why, 
then, do you compare baptisms, which have but the name in common, 
but differ as much as a dream from reality, or shadows and images 
from substances ?" (§ 32). 

" The dispensation of our God and Saviour toward man consists in 
a restoration from the effects of the fall and a return to intimate union 
with God, after the alienation caused by disobedience" (§ 35). 

The controversy between St. Cyprian and Stephen, Bishop of 
Rome, concerning the rebaptism of heretics, on their joining the 
Church, brings clearly into prominence two points in which there was 
full unanimitv at the time : 



APPENDIX. 223 

I. There was agreement about the grace or virtue of Baptism, 
Baptism (separate from Confirmation) conveyed 

i. Remission of sins, 
ii. Regeneration. 

iii. Renewal. 

This is summed up in the Epistle of Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea 
in Cappadocia, to St. Cyprian He complains that Stephen allows to 
heretics the power of conferring " the great and heavenly gifts of the 
Church in Baptism," and these, he says, are, " they wash away the filth 
of the old man, they forgive the ancient sins of death, they make sons of 
God by heavenly regeneration, they renew them to eternal life by the 
sanctification of the divine laver" (Ep. Ixxv., § 17, Paris, 1726, p. 148). 

See also Ep. lxx. . § 1 ; Ixxiii., § 7, 12, 18 ; lxxiv., § 5, 6 ; lxxv., 
§8. 14. 

II. There was agreement that Confirmation, or the laying on of 
hands, was the outward means of the communication of the Holy 
Spirit (St. Cyprian, Epis. lxxii., § 1 ; lxxxiii., § 6, 9 ; lxxiv., § 5, 
7 : lxxv., § 12, 18). 

This was the basis and strong point of St. Cyprian's argument. 
All agree that heretics cannot convey or communicate the Holy 
Spirit. All agree that regeneration is given in valid Baptism. Well, 
then, argues St. Cyprian, How can a man who neither has nor can 
communicate the Holy Spirit— how can such a man baptize ? Stephen 
answers, It is the custom of the Church ; and herein he was right. 
But St. Cyprian answered, " It is in vain that some, who are conquer- 
ed in argument, bring ' custom ' as an answer to us, just as if custom 
were greater than truth, or just as if that should not be followed in 
spiritual matters which has been revealed for the better plan by the 
Holy Spirit." Stephen answered by excommunicating St. Cyprian, the 
African Bishops, and all who agreed with them. St. Cyprian justly 
regarded this as a very poor argument. St. Firmilian pointed out 
that this was practically excommunicating himself. 

Bat Stephen was right, as the event proved, in his position, but not 
in his arrogant temper. 

The XXVI Ith Article of our Church gives much the same view of 
Baptism : 

Baptism " is a sign of regeneration or new Birth, whereby, as by an 
instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the 
Church ; the promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be 
the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; 
faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God." 



224 APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX BB.* PAGE 151. 

The following passages will be sufficient to show this : 

Second century , Tertullian, De Baptismo, xix., " Easter is the most 
solemn time for Baptism, when also the Passion of the Lord, by which 
we are baptized, was completed. . . . Next to that Pentecost is the 
most joyous time for arranging feasts." He gives reasons. 

Fourth century, a.d. 385, Siricius of Rome, writing to Himerius, 
Bishop of Tarragona (§ 2), forbids solemn public Baptisms to be 
celebrated except at Easter and Pentecost, and blames Baptism of 
large numbers taking place on Saints' Day ; but in peril of death at 
any time (Labbei Concilia, Tom. ii., col. 1018). 

A.D. 390, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. xl., Opera, Paris, 1609, 
speaks of excuses for putting off Baptism, " I am waiting for the 
Epiphany. Easter is much better. I will await Pentecost." 

Fifth century, St. Leo, a.d. 447, Ep. xvi., Tom. i., 462, also 718. 
Baptism not to be celebrated publicly on the Epiphany, only at 
Easter and Pentecost. 

Sixth century, Co. Macon, II., a.d. 585, forbids Baptism at any 
other time except in case of necessity, complaining that at Easier 
"there are only two or three to be regenerated by water and the 
Holy Spirit." 

St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, VIII., ix., at Christmas, this 
would probably include Epiphany ; Easter ; St. John's Day, Hist. 
Fr., X., xv., " Release the Abbess, or not a single catechumen shall 
be baptized at Easter." 

Eighth century, Gregory II., A.D. 720, Easter and Pentecost 
(Labbei Cone, vi., 1443 and 1453). 

Ninth century, Co. Paris, VI., a.d. 829. Easter and Pentecost 
(Labbei Cone, vii., 1603 and 1621 ; also Co. Triburiense, Can. xii., a.d. 
895, Labbei, ix., 445). 



APPENDIX CC. PAGE 153. 

" The Power of the Priesthood in Absolution," by Rev. W. Cooke, 
Hon. Canon of Chester, is the most valuable treatise on this subject, 
though it seems impertinent to praise the work of one to whom the 
writer of these lectures owes so much as he does to Canon Cooke. 

The following passage shows the inclusive character of the Confes- 
sion in the service of the Holy Communion. 

"The Confession is, in fact, the expression of the results of that 



APPENDIX. 22 5 

careful self examination which the Priest was ordered to exhort his par- 
ishioners to make, before they communicated on the Body and Blood 
of Christ. That it includes venial sins may be gathered from the re- 
quirement, '' that you confe?s your sins of infirmity or ignorance ; ' 
that it is not confined to these is manifest from the general tone of 
the Exhortation, which treats of ' sins and unkindness toward God's 
Majesty committed ; ' sins of ' malice and hatred and wrong done to 
a neighbor ; ' sins that need deep sorrow, and confession, and amend- 
ment ; without which, it declares, ' Neither the absolution of the 
Priest can avail, nor the receiving of this holy sacrament doth any- 
thing but increase damnation.' And as it stands in our present 
Book, the Exhortation contains an expression which has marked ref- 
erence to mortal sin. The teaching of the Schoolmen is ' that mortal 
sins must be diligently recollected and individually detested ; ' and 
in strict accordance with this the Church orders: l Whereinsoever ye 
shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or 
deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves 
to Almighty God with full purpose of amendment of life.' 

*'The Confession, therefore, being framed to embody the results of 
such minute search and examination of conscience, and including all 
sins, mortal as well as venial, is suited both for those ' that are satis- 
fied with a general confession,' and for those who 'do use, to their 
further satisfying, the auricular and secret confession to the Priest.' 
It need hardly be said that ' a general confession ' points to the 
Rubric, ' Then shall this general Confession be made.' It is in 
general terms, so as to apply to the whole body of assembled Chris- 
tians ; yet in such wise as to admit of each individual making therein 
particular mention of his own sins and burden and grief." 

" The Absolution reaches as far as the Confession, and the sentence, 
' Pardon and deliver you from all your sins,' remits all the sins con- 
fessed, mortal as well as venial." 

Then, with respect to the Confession and Absolution in daily prayer, 
Canon Cooke writes : 

" In the Second Book of King Edward VI. were placed at the begin- 
ning of the Office of Matins the general Confession and the Absolu- 
tion, which preface both the Matins and Evensong of our present 
book. Archdeacon Freeman points out that ' these are constructed 
in that form which would most completely adapt them for super- 
seding, in all ordinary cases, private Confession and Absolution.' 
An examination of the Confession will show that, like the Confession 
in the Liturgy, it is framed with the closest regard to the old defini- 

15 



226 APPENDIX. 

tions of mortal sin ; and that it differs in this respect from the Ancient 
Confessions at Prime and Compline, which were considered to refer 
to venial sins alone. The clauses, ' We have erred and strayed from 
Thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and 
desires of our own hearts, ' are simply the definition of St. Thomas 
Aquinas thrown into a precatory form : ' Mortal sin proceeds from 
the aversion of man's will from God by its conversion to a commu- 
table good ; ' the petitions, ' Spare Thou them which confess their 
faults, r. store Thou them that are penitent,' with the final prayers for 
grace to amend, accord exactly with the definition of penitence, 
which 'consists in the reconversion of the will to God, with detesta- 
tion of the past, and a purpose of amendment for the future.' And 
the Absolution which follows covers all that is included in the Con- 
fession." 



APPENDIX DD. PAGE 154. 

The following passage is quoted by Canon Cooke from Bishop 
Fleetwood, Chaplain to William III. : 

" Bishop Fleetwood, in his ' Essay on Miracles,' thus ex- 
plains the passage : ' On a certain occasion, when one sick of the 
p ilsy was brought unto Him, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, 
thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sit- 
ting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man speak 
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immedi- 
ately when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within 
themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your 
hearts? Our Saviour does not here blame them for thus reasoning 
with themselves ; for certainly they reasoned right, that none but 
God could forgive sins ; and it was no great matter to mistake, and 
think that Christ attributed such power to Himself, by pronouncing 
so absolutely " that his sins were forgiven him ; " and such a power 
they never knew committed to any man : He does not blame them 
therefore for so reasoning, but takes occasion from thence to show 
them who He was, and the potver He had committed to Him, and for 
what purpose ; and therefore He goes on, " Whether is it easier to say 
to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise, 
tike up thy bed, and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of 
Man hath power on earth to forgive sins I say unto thee " (speaking 
then to the sick of the palsy), "Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way 
unto thy house. " Consider with yourselves this matter. You heard 



APFENDIX. 227 

Me lately tell this sick man that his sins were forgiven him, and 
thought immediately that I had spoken impious and blasphemous 
words, attributing to Myself a power plainly divine and incommuni- 
cable, that is, of forgiving sins. That God alone can forgive sins 
committed against Himself is certainly true ; but if you think that He 
cannot communicate this power, you are mistaken; for I assure you, 
that the Son of Man, even I who speak to you, have power on earth 
to forgive sins, and I was exercising this good power upon this mis- 
erable paralytic, which was, you know, the occasion of your inward 
reasoning, and concluding Me to have blasphemed. And what think 
you? You see this poor creature, how impotent and weak he is 
before you, how altogether unable he is to stir and help himself : do 
not you believe it is as easy for God to give Me the power of 
forgiving sins, as it is to give Me the power of working miraculous 
cures? May I not say as easily, "Thy sins are forgiven thee," as I 
can say, " Arise, take up thy bed, and walk " ? If I, without the ap- 
plication of proper means, or any manner of prescription, shall cure 
this man of his distemper by the bare word of My mouth, by saying 
only, " Arise, take up thy bed, and walk," will you not believe that I 
have also power to forgive sins, since one is full as easy as the other ? 
Now, that you may know assuredly that I, the Son of Man, have 
power on earth to forgive sins, you shall see that I have power to 
cure this paralytic presently—" I say unto thee, then," thou lame and 
helpless creature, " Arise, take up thy bed, and walk, and go thy way 
to thy house. " Whether his sins be truly forgiven him, according to 
My word, is what you cannot possibly discover ; but whether I have 
power to cure this man's disease, the effect will show immediately, 
and you will visibly discern. " And immediately he arose, took up 
his bed, and went forth before them all ; insomuch that they were 
all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fash- 
ion. " Here is an act of great mercy shown to a poor miserable man ; 
but it is plain that Christ's design was now to show the Jews the 
truth of that doctrine, " That the Son of Man hath power on earth to 
forgive sins." That was the thing the Jews stumbled at, and this 
was the way Christ took to set them right ; the miracle was to procure 
attention and belief ; the visible effect of a divine power was to con- 
vince them that what He said was true, although the effect (namely, 
the forgiveness of sins) was and must be invisible.' 

" Our Lord does not deny that God only has the absolute power and 
right to forgive sins. He does not here claim to forgive sins as being 
God. He states simply that He, the Son of Man, has power on earth 



228 APPENDIX. 

to forgive sins. The word which is translated 'power ' is a clew to 
the meaning. It is not power, absolute and inherent, or prerogative ; 
but delegated power, license, permission, granted from a higher au- 
thority. And this delegated power to forgive sins on earth, this 
license and permission to forgive sins on earth, He claims for Him- 
self as the Son of Man. He explained on another occasion that the 
Son of Man cast out devils and worked miracles by the spirit of God. 
He said, ' The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed Me. . . . He hath 
sent Me ... to set at liberty them that are bruised.' The Holy 
Spirit gave Him, the Son of Man, power to work miracles and to for- 
give sins on earth." 



APPENDIX EE. PAGE 159. 

" It were an unexplained and unexampled metaphor that to eat His 
Flesh were to believe in Him ; the more so, since in that language 
such metaphor is only used of preying upon a person, or on one's 
self, or of calumniation (the metaphor is from wild beasts — e.g., 
• When the wicked, even My foes, came upon Me to eat up My flesh, 
they stumbled and fell' [Psalms 27 : 2] ; 'Who also eat the flesh of 
My people' [Micah 3:3; cf. Job 19 : 22 ; Psalms 14 : 4 ; Jeremiah 
10 : 25 ; 50 : 17])." A sermon by Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., "This is 
My Body," 1=871, pp. 21, 22. 

APPENDIX FF. PAGE 160. 

Arnold on Baruch 1 : 10 writes (Commentary on Apocrypha, 1753, 
p. *95) : The word "is improperly rendered prepare ; it is a sacrificial 
expression, and signifies to offer. . . . The words at the institution of 
the Eucharist would be as well rendered, 4 Offer this in remembrance 
of Me.' It is likewise so used by the Jewish Hellenistic writers and by 
the Greek ones of the Church, as facere is also among the Latins." 

So too Bishop Bull (" Corruptions of the Church of Rome," Works 
ed., Burton, 1827, vol. ii., p. 251) : " They held the Eucharist to be a 
commemorative sacrifice, and so do we. This is the constant language 
of the ancient liturgies, ' We offer by way of commemoratios, accord- 
ing to our Saviour's words when He ordained this holy rite, Do this 
in commemoration of Me.' " 

In order to help students to make up their minds on this subject, 
the following references to the Greek Septuagint are given ; when the 
same Greek word as St. Paul (1 Corinthians n : 24,25) and St. Luke 



APPENDIX. 229 

(22 : 19) represent our Blessed Lord as using is employed for sacrifice 
or offer : 

Exodus 10 : 25 ; 29 : 36, 38, 39, 41 ; Leviticus 4 : 20 ; 9 : 7, 16, 22 ; 
14 : 19, 30 ; 15 : 15 ; 16 : 15, 24 ; 17 : 4, 9 ; 22 : 23, 24 ; 23 : 12, 19 ; 
Numbers 6 : 11, 16, 17 ; 8 : 12 ; 15 : 3, 8, 24 ; 28 : 4, 8, 15, 24, 31 ; 
29 : 2 ; Deuteronomy 12 : 27 ; Joshua 22 : 23 ; Judges 13 : 16, 19 ; 
1 Samuel 1 : 24. 

1 Kings 3 : 15; 8: 64; 11: 33. This passage is remarkable. The 
Greek is "DID to Astarte." The English has " Worshipped 
Ashtoreth." The Hebrew is the Hithpalel of Shach&h, to bow down 
or prostrate one's self ; it is the same as in Genesis 22 : 5 : "I and the 
lad will go yonder and worship" and 1 Samuel 1 : 3, " This man went 
up yearly to worship" For the Greek rroielv to be used for this word 
shows how entirely the sense of sacrificial worship had become at- 
tached to the Greek iroielv. It is used here as intransitive, followed by 
a dative " offered to Astarte." 

2 Kings 5:17; 10 : 24, 25 ; 17 : 32 ; 2 Chronicles 7:7; Job 42 : 
8 ; Psalm 66 : 15 ; Isaiah 19 : 21 ; Jeremiah 33 : 18 ; Ezekiel 43 : 25: 
27 ; 45 : 17, 22, 23 ; 46 : 2, 12, 13, 15. 

The following are instances of nocelv with unbloody sacrifices : 

Exodus 29 : 41 ; Leviticus 2 : 7, 8 (flour), 11 ; 6 : 22 ; Numbers 15 : 
5 (wine), 6 (flour), 14 ; 28 : 21, 24 ; Ezekiel 46 : 14. 

In the following passages there is no Hebrew to correspond ; 

Numbers 15 : 6 ; 28 : 5 ; 2 Kings 10 : 21 ; Baruch 1 : 10. 

The following are some of the many passages, where the word 
■koisIv is used of keeping, or celebrating the Passover. 

Exodus 12: 48 ; 13 : 5 ; Numbers 9:2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14 ; 
Deuteronomy 16 : 1 ; Joshua 5 10 ; 2 Kings 23 : 21 ; 2 Chronicles 
30; 2t, 23 ; 2 Chronicles 35 : 1, 16, 17, 18 19 ; Ezra 6 : 19, 22 ; 1 
Esdras 1:6; St. Matthew 26 : 18 ; Hebrews n : 28. 

In St. Luke 2 : 27, " When the parents brought in the child Jesus ? 
to do for Him after the custom of the law," it would be far better to 
tnnslate as is required, "to offer for Him ;" this is distinctly the 
meaning of the passage : it is as much a sacrificial word as that trans- 
lated off<r in 5 : 24, which really means to give. 

Indeed, though the meaning in this connection is not so certain, in 
St. Mark 14 : 8, to translate, " She offered what she had," is simpler, 
and gives the grammatical force of the two aorists far better than 
" she hath done what she could." 

Leaving Scripture, we have the following in the earliest Christian 
times : 



230 APPENDIX. 

St. Clement of Rome, Ep. to Corinthians, § 40, where Bishop 
Lightfoot translates "■make their offerings" without note. 

St. Justin Martyr uses the word in this sense in three passages, and 
it is sadly amusing to see to what straits partisans are reduced in 
the translation. 

Apology I., § lxv., ed. Thirlby, London, 1722, p. 96, 1 8. Here, in 
Clark's Ante-Nicene Library, the passage is rightly rendered " offers." 
Here the verb is in the middle voice. 

Dialogue with Trypho, § 41, ed. Thirlby, p. 220. Here Brown in 
1745 translates accurately, " The offering of fine flour was also a type 
of that Eucharistical bread which our Lord Jesus Christ has command- 
ed us to offer" (Reprint, 1846, p. 96). But in Clark's A. N. Library 
(1867, p. 138) Rev. G. Reith, A. M., throws scholarship and, indeed, 
sense, to the wind, and renders " the bread of the Eucharist, the cele- 
bration of which our Lord prescribed. " Now which refers to bread and 
not to Eucharist ; but this translation leads us to believe that the cele- 
bration of the Eucharist is said to have been prescribed. This would 
be sense. But " the celebration of the bread" is pure nonsense. 
How can any one besides Mr. Reith celebrate bread? 

Dialogue, § 70, ed. Thirlby, p. 290. Here Mr. Brown (reprint, 1846, 
p. 151) is correct : "That bread which our Christ bath commanded 
us to offer . . . that cup which He commanded those that celebrate 
the Eucharist to offer''' But Mr. Reith gets wilder than before (p. 187). 
He has "the bread which our Christ gave us to eat . . . the cup 
which he gave us to drink !" Can any scholar (besides Mr. Reith) 
find one passage anywhere in a reputable Greek author, where ttoleIv 
can mean to eat, and also to drink, in the same sentence ? 

Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, a.d. 251. His letter about Novatus 
is given in Eusebius (Ecc. Hist., vi., 43, ed. Heinichen, vol. ii., p. 
279), " Having offered the oblation." 

This meaning is continued to this day in the Greek Church. In the 
prothesis, when all is ready for the Liturgy, the Deacon says to the 
priest : " It is time to offer to the Lord," noir/aai (Euchologion Mega, 
Venice, 1862, p. 44). See also the rubric on p. 105, " When the priest 
is about to offer the Prohegiasmene." 



APPENDIX GG. PAGE 182. 

There is no doubt that in Scripture the number seven denotes per- 
fection or completeness. When St. Paul had written to seven 



APPENDIX. 231 

Churches, his message to the whole Church was complete, and no 
more Epistles of his were inspired. He wrote to the following 
Churches : Thessalonian, Corinthian, Roman, Galatian, Ephesian, 
Philippian, Colossian. Even if the Epistle to the Hebrews be as- 
cribed to him, it is rather to a class of persons within the Church that 
it is written, than to a Church. 

Similarly, St. John in the Apocalypse was instructed to write to 
seven Churches, and the message was complete. In the Apocalypse, 
the seven Candlesticks represent the whole Church ; and the seven Seals 
and the seven Trumpets and the seven Vials all signify completeness 
in various ways. Then there are seven weeks ending at Pentecost 
(Leviticus 23 : 15), seven pillars to the House of Wisdom (Proverbs 
9 : 1), seven notes in the musical scale, and seven days in the week. 
The following is from a manuscript, in handwriting about the mid- 
dle of the fourteenth century, in the writer's possession, and is inter- 
esting in this connection : 

" Of the seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer, it is to be remarked, 
that by them 

i. The seven deadly sins are put to flight, 
ii. The seven. gifts of the Spirit are introduced, 
iii. The seven Beatitudes are achieved, 
iv. The seven Rewards are bestowed. 
" I. The first petition is, ' Hallowed be Thy name.' 
That is, Thou, O Father, Who art the Father of all by Creation, 
art ours by special love ; Who art in the natural Heavens by 
presence and power, in the spiritual Heavens by grace. Of which it 
is said in the psalm, ' The Heavens declare the glory of God.' Hallozved 
— that is, may this Thy name of Father be confirmed in us, that we may 
ever be and be found Thy faithful children by obedience and filial 
subjection. 

i. Thus the deadly sin of Pride is excluded, which refuses 

subjection, 
ii. The gift of filial fear is introduced, fleeing from sin on ac- 
count of its offence to God, and on account of love of our 
Father ; for the fear of the Lord drives away sin. 
iii. The first Beatitude is obtained — viz., Poverty of Spirit ; that 
is, when a man is poor, so far as the spirit of perversity and 
boasting, of which it is said in Isaiah, * Cease ye from man, 
whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed lofty.' 
{Vulgate version.) 
iv. The first reward is bestowed— viz., the Kingdom of Heaven, 



232 APPENDIX. 

' Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the Kingdom 
of Heaven.' 
"II. The second petition is, 'Thy Kingdom come;' that is, I 
pray that the whole world may come to Thy Kingdom. 

i. Thus the deadly sin of envy is excluded, which does not de- 
sire the good of others, 
ii. The gift of true Godliness is introduced, 
iii. The second Beatitude— viz., Meekness, is obtained, 
iv. The second reward is bestowed— viz., the possession of the 
heavenly land ; of which it is said, ' Thou art my portion in 
the land of the living.' 
" III. The third petition is, " Thy will be done ; ' that is, that men 
may be of one mind and tranquil. This prayer, ' Thy will be done,' 
is that men may be tranquil on earth as the angels are in Heaven. 

i. Thus is excluded the deadly sin of Anger, which prevents a 

man from knowing what the will of God is. 
ii. Thus is introduced the gift of Knowledge, which teaches us 

what we must do and how we must live, 
iii. Thus is obtained the third Beatitude — viz., mourning. He 
who does not know how to live rightly ought to mourn for 
his sins, 
iv. Thus is bestowed the third reward— viz., eternal consolation, 
' Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted.' 
" IV. The fourth petition is, ' Give us this day our daily Bread ; ' 
that is, I ask not merely for bodily food, but food for my soul. 

i. Thus is excluded the deadly sin of sloth ; that is, distaste for 

the word of God. 
ii. Thus is introduced the gift of Ghostly strength, 
iii. Thus is ob'ained the fourth Beatitude ; that is, hungeiing after 

Righteousness, 
iv. Thus is bestowed on man the fourth reward — viz., Satisfaction. 
' Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after lighteousness : 
for they shall be filled.' 
" V. The fifth petition is, ' Forgive us our debts as we forgive 
them that are indebted to us ; ' that is forgive us our debts by remit- 
ting them, and by bestowing on us the gift of grace. As we forgive 
our debtors — that is, by pardoning their debts and by giving them a 
gift. 

i. Thus is excluded the deadly sin of avarice, 
ii. Thus is brought in the gift of counsel, which is, ' Go and sell 
all that you have and give to the poor.' 



APPENDIX. 233 

iii. Thus is bestowed the fifth Beatitude, which is Mercy in this 

present world. 
iv. Thus is bestowed the fifth reward, which is the obtaining 
mercy and freedom in the future. ' Blessed are the merci- 
ful : for they shall obtain mercy.' 
" VI. The sixth petition is, * Lead us not into temptation ;' that is. 
that we be not overcome by temptation -e.g., excess of food or drink, 
i. Thus is excluded gluttony, 
ii. Thus is introduced the gift of understanding, which is against 

excess, 
iii. Thus is obtained the sixth Beatitude, which is purity of heart, 
iv. Thus is bestowed the sixth reward, the beatific vision of God 
Himself. ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God.' 
"VII. The seventh petition is, ' Deliver us from evil ; ' that is, from 
the evil of incontinence. 

i. Thus is excluded luxury. 

ii. Thus is introduced the gift of wisdom, giving spiritual taste 
against the flesh. For when spiritual delights have been 
perceived, all flesh seems tasteless, 
iii. Thus is obtained the seventh Beatitude— that is, peace. For 
he alone has peace at home, who, by subduing the flesh, 
knows how to taste how gracious the Lord is. 
iv. The seventh reward is bestowed — viz., divine adopt'on. 
4 Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the 
children of God.' " 



APPENDIX HH. PAGE 186. 

The following passage from St. Augustine is valuable in this con- 
nection (Ep. ad Sixtum, CXCIV., § 18, Opera, Paris, 1688, Tom. ii., 
col. 720 F) : 

" Just as no one is wise aright, understands aright, prevails aright 
in counsel and might, no one is devout in knowledge, no one feais 
God with spotless fear, unless he have received the spirit of wisdom 
and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and godli- 
ness, and the fear of God ; nor has any one true virtue, sincere kve, 
god-fearing temperance, except by the spirit of virtue and love and 
temperance ; so also without the spirit of faith no one will believe 
rightly, nor without the spirit of prayer will one pray profitably. Not 



234 APPENDIX. 

that there are so many Spirits, but all this worketh cne and the self- 
same Spirit, dividing to every one severally as He will ; because 
the Spirit bloweth where He listeih. But because we must confess 
that He helps in one way before indwelling, in another way after 
indwelling. For before He is indwelling He helps men to be faithful ; 
He helps them when they are faithful by indwelling." 



APPENDIX II. PAGE 194. 

This is manifest in the controversy between St. Cyprian and 
Stephen of Rome. This brought out the fact that all were agreed 
that the Holy Spirit was not given outside the Church. 

Hence heretics were admitted to the Church, if they had been 
validly baptized, only with unction and laying on of hands. In mod- 
ern times a distinction has been made between Confirmation as a 
sacramental rite and the reception of converted heretics. But this is 
really only a difference of name. The words used are the same. 
Thus the Seventh Canon of the Second General Council (Constanti- 
nople, I., A.D. 381), speaking of certain heretics whose baptism was 
regarded as valid, says : " We receive them if they give written 
renunciation of their errors and anathematize every heresy not of the 
same mind as the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of God, and 
being sealed— that is, anointed first with holy unction on forehead, and 
eyes, and nostrils, and mouth, and ears, and sealing them we fay : 
' The seal of the gift of the Huly Ghost.' " 

These are the words used at Confirmation. 

St. Leo the Great continually repeats that heretics cannot com- 
municate the Holy Spirit, though their Baptism is valid, as the fol- 
lowing passage will show : 

" They have received the form of Baptism, therefore they are not 
to be baptized ; but they are to be joined to the Catholics by the 
imposition of hands ; the virtue of the Holy Spirit being invoked, 
which cannot be received from heretics" (Ep. ii., Opera, Paris, 1675, 
Tom. i., p. 411). This is quoted by Auxilius in the tenth century. 

Again, "Their Baptism must not be outraged by repetition, only 
the sanctification of the Spirit is to be invoked, that uhat no one 
receives from heretics may be obtained from Catholic Bishops" (Ep. 
cxxix., § 7, Tom. i., p. 688). 

See also Ep. cxxxv., § 2, i., p. 717. 

This must suffice on this head. 



APPENDIX. 235 

APPENDIX KK. PAGE 196. 

When a particular gift or grace of the Holy Spirit is prayed for, it 
is specially named and thus limited. In Baptism we pray for regen- 
eration : " Give Thy Holy Spirit to this person, that he may be born 
again." In ordination it is " /or the work of a Priest or Bishop." 
There is no such limitation in Confirmation. 

Didymus, the blind marvel of learning, appointed by St. Athana- 
sius as head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, draws attention 
to the fact that, sometimes, at all events, the omission of the Article 
in Greek before " Spirit" shows that an influence or gift is intended, 
and not the Personal Presence of the Holy Spirit. The treatise of 
Didymus on the Holy Spirit is preserved in a Latin translation by 
St. Jerome among his works (Opera, Veronae, 1735, Tom. ii., col. 
124). The same is referred to by St. Athanasius himself (Ep. ad 
Serapionem, I., § 4, Opera, Patavii, Tom. i., pars 2, p. 520). Bishop 
Middleton (on the Article, ed. Rose, 1855, p. 127, on St. Matthew 
1 : 18) says the same : " The sacred Writers have clearly, and in strict 
conformity with the analogy of language, distinguished the influence 
from the Person of the Spirit." 



APPENDIX LL. PAGE 200. 

" The first great distinction between God's gifts to the soul of man 
divides the ordinary from the extraordinary gifts of grace. The or- 
dinary gifts of grace are those which are commonly given to each 
soul for its own particular edification. The extraordinary gifts are 
those which are only given at certain times and to certain persons for 
the general good of the Church. The ordinary gifts of grace are 
those which give spiritual strength and enable us to resist temptation, 
to conquer sin, to keep our baptismal vows, and generally to lead a 
Christian life" (Benjamin Webb, " Instructions and Devotions for 
Candidates for Confirmation" — a very valuable little book). See also 
" The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised," a sermon by George Hickes, 
D.D. (afterward a Bishop of the Non-jurors), London, 1680. 



APPENDIX MM. PAGE 200. 

There is now a strong feeling that we must return to the primitive 
teaching about the truth of the especial grace of Confirmation — viz., 



236 APPENDIX. 

what the Archbishop of Canterbury has so well said : " No thread of 
language and history is more distinct than that which connects 
Christ's promise of the coming of the Paraclete, to be an indwelling 
Power in all His chosen ones, with the institute of the laying on of 
Hands by the Apostles" (" The Seven Gifts," p. 87). This was the 
primitive teaching, so that Bishop Cornelius could say of the heretic, 
Novatus, that having received clinical Baptism in danger of death, " he 
did not receive the completion, which he should have received, accord- 
ing to the Canon of the Church, nor was he sealed by the Bishop, but 
not having received this, how could he have received the Holy Ghost?" 
(Ap. Euseb., His. Ecc, VI., 43). There was only one way recognized 
by the Church. 

A little essay published in 1880 by Rev. F. W. Puller, "What is 
the distinctive grace of Confirmation?" (Rivingtons, London) is 
very valuable. It is full of learning and close argument. 

In the Eastern Church anointing with chrism seems to have 
superseded the Scriptural rite of laying on of hands at an early date. 
In the West, too, unction has become regarded as the impertant part 
of the rite ; though some have argued that the necessary touch of the 
finger, in the anointing in East and West, is sufficient "laying on of 
hands." 

In the gossipy and interesting history of St. Gregory of Tours 
(a.d. 580), he only speaks of anointing in his constant reference to 
the reconciliation of Arians, on which Ruinart has the following note : 
" Gregory everywhere speaks of the reconciliation of the Arians by 
chrism alone ; just as now, in conferring Confirmation, hardly any 
mention is made of the laying on of hands, which, however, is 
necessary." 

There seems good evidence that in the English Church the laying 
on of hands was never dropped. In the seventh century, we find 
Bishop Cuthbert, in the North of England, "laying his hand on the 
head of each one." In the eighth century, Bede mentions this without 
qualification : " He ministered the grace of the Holy Spirit by impo- 
sition of hands on those who had just been regenerated in Christ" 
(" Life of St. Cuthbert," XXXII., ed. Giles, vol. tv. , p. 30S). A manu- 
script service book of the Church of England, written in the eleventh 
century (preserved in the library of Sidney-Sussex College, Cam- 
bridge, G. B.), expressly directs the Bishop to lay hands on each can- 
didate. Two centuries after, Wiclif refers to Confirmation in a 
manner which implies (or has been held to imply) that laying on 
of hands was the practice in his day. Two hundred years later " the 



APPENDIX. 237 

King's Book," in 1543, shows the same. " The holy fathers of the 
primitive Church, taking. occasion and founding themselves upon the 
said acts and deeds of the Apostles, . . . did use and obseive (as it 
hath been hitherto by succession of ages continued) that all Christian 
people should, after their baptism, be presented to their bishops, to 
the intent that by their prayers and imposition of their -hands upon 
them . . . they should be confirmed." In 1549 tne fi rst Prayer-Book 
of Edward VI. directs that the Bishop should " lay his hand upon 
their heads," and this is continued to the present day among us. 

There can be little doubt that the decline of true teaching about 
Confirmation arose primarily from the carelessness and lack of activ- 
ity of the Bishops. This carelessness spread to the people and the 
result was that the sober Philip Melanchthon could call the rite " otiosa 
caeremonia." But when he said that in primitive times Confirmation 
was nothing more than a catechizing of those that had been baptized 
as infants, he made a perfectly groundless statement. He seems to 
have misunderstood a Canon of the first Council of Aries (a.d. 314) 
and one of Laodicea (? a.d. 320), both of which are about the re- 
ception into the Church of converted heretics ; they were to be openly 
catechized about their errors. Of the modern popular view, that 
Confirmation is a ratifying of baptismal vows, there is not the 

SLIGHTEST TRACE TO BE FOUND IN CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY ; it must 

therefore be erroneous. What is new is not true, and what is 

TRUE IS NOT NEW. 

In order to help the Student references are here given to writers 
under the various centuries. 

First Century. (Acts 8 : 17 ; 19 : 6). "Ever after in the 
letters of the Apostles such is the frequency of verbal and phrase- 
ological allusion to the custom, that, as a scholar once remarked to 
me, 'Confirmation seems more present to the earliest Christian 
habits of thought than Baptism itself " (Archbishop Benson, of Can- 
terbury, "The Seven Gifts," 1885, p. 87). 

It has been doubted by some whether in the beautiful story of St. 
John and the young robber, Confirmation is referred to ; but as 
Eusebius relates the story, and as St. Clement of Alexandria seems 
to use the word seal of Confirmation, and as the epithet perfect 
{reketov) is commonly used of Confirmation, there cannot be much 
doubt that we are not wrong in claiming the passage for Confirma- 
tion. 

"The Bishop took the young man home, fed, disciplined, fostered 
him, and at length baptized him. After this he relaxed his excessive 



238 APPENDIX. 

care of him, as he had bestowed upon him the perfect preservative, 
the seal of the Lord "(Eusebius quoting St. Clement of Alexandria, 
Eccl. Hist., III., 23, ed. Heinichen, 1827, Tom. i., p. 232). 

A fragment referred to St. Clement of Rome probably belongs to 
him of Alexandria, but even so the reference to Confirmation is 
doubtful (St. Clement, ed. Lightfoot, i., p. 220). 

Second Century. ''Tne woman begged of him, saying: 
'Apostle of the Most High, give me the seal, that the foe may 
not come back upon me again. ' Then he made her come near him, 
and putting his hand upon her, he sealed her in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," Apocryphal Acts of 
the Ap. Thomas. This probably refers to Baptism and Confirmation 
together, as is often the case. The Presbyterian Dr. Dale refers to 
this and other places as being hand-baptism without water ! {Christie 
Baptism, p. 115 ; Johannic Baptism, pp. 221, 222). 

A.D. 180. " What work has either ornament or beauty, unless it 
be anointed and burnished ? The air and all that is under heaven is 
in a certain sort anointed by light and spirit ; and are you unwilling 
to be anointed with the oil of God ? We are called Christians on this 
account, because we are anointed with the oil of God" (Theophilus 
of Antioch to Autolycus, Clark's A. N. Lib., p. 62). 

A.D. 196. Tertullian has many passages to the point. " Not that 
in the water (of Baptism) we obtain the Holy Spirit, but in the 
water, under the influence of the angel, we are cleansed, and thus 
prepared for the Holy Spirit. ... In the next place hand is laid on 
u>, invjkingand inviting the Holy Ghost. . . . Then that most Holy 
Spirit gladly descends from the Father upon our cleansed and blessed 
bodies. . . . Nor is this without the supporting evidence of a fore- 
going type. For just as after the waters of the deluge, by which 
ancient iniquity was purged away, after the baptism (so to speak) of 
the world, a dove was the herald which announced to the world the 
peace of heavenly wrath, sent forth from the ark and returning with 
olive ... so by the law of heavenly effect to earth (that is, our flesh) 
emerging from the font after its old sins, the dove of the Holy Spirit 
flies, bringing the peace of God" (De Baptismo, cap. 8., Opera, ed. 
Oahler, i., p. 627). 

Again, "The flesh is the very hinge of salvation. . . . The flesh 
is shadowed by the imposition of hand, that the soul may be illumi- 
nated by the Spirit" (De Resur. Carnis, cap. 8, ed. Oehler, ii., p. 478). 

Third Century t Origen, born a.d. 1S5, died a.d. 254. 

" In the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Ghost was given in 



APPENDIX. 239 

Baptism by the laying on of the Apostles' hands" (De Principiis, I., 
111., § 2, Opera, Paris, 1733, Tom. i., p. 61). This is often quoted (see 
below), A.d. 550, by Primasius, and a.d. 840, by Haymo of Halber- 
stadt. Here Confirmation is regarded as part of Baptism. So, again, 
in his Commentary on the Epistle to Romans (Romans 6, Lib. v., 
Opera, Paris, 1759, Tom. iv., p. 561) : " According to the tradition 
of the Church we are all baptized in visible water and with visible 
chrism." 

A.D. 250. St. Cyprian is full of reference to the effect of Confirma- 
tion, as it is his strongest argument against Bishop Stephen of Rome. 
One or two passages are quoted and references given to other pas- 
sages. 

Speaking of the confirming of the Samaritans (Acts 8), he says, 
that as they had been properly baptized, " that which was lacking was 
done by Peter and John, that prayer being offered for them, and the 
hand laid on them, the Holy Spirit should be invoked and poured 
upon them. Which now also is done among us, that they who are 
baptized in the Church are presented to those set over the Church, 
and by our prayer and laying on of hands receive the Holy Spirit, 
and are perfected with the seal of the Lord" (Ep. Ixxiii., ed. Pdris, 
1726 p. 132). 

Again, " If they attribute the effect of Baptism to the Majesty of 
the Name. . . . Why is not, in the name of the same Christ, the hand 
laid on the baptized that he may receive the Holy Spirit ? , . . More- 
over, a man is not born by laying on of hands when he receives the 
Holy Spirit ; but he is born in the Baptism of the Church, that, being 
already born, he may receive the Holy Spirit, just as was in the case 
of the first Adam. For first God formed him, and then breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life. For the Spirit cannot be received 
unless the rec.iver first have an existence" (Paris, 1726, pp. 139, 
140). 

See also Ep. Ixx., Paris, 1726, p. 125 ; lxxii., lxx'ii., pp. 128, 136, 
etc. 

St. Firmilian, in answer to St. Cyprian, argues precisely in the same 
manner. His letter is among the Epistles of St. Cyprian (Ep. lxxv., 
Paris, 1726, pp. 145-47)- 

A.D. 251. St. Cornelius of Rome, in a fibular letter about the 
heretic Novatus, writes : " He fell into a grievous sickness, and being 
thought moribund, he was baptized on the bed where he lay. But 
when he recovered he did not receive the rest which he should have 
received, according to the Canon of the Church, nor was he sealed by 



240 APPENDIX. 

the Bishop. But not having received this, how could he receive the 
Ho'y Spirit?" (preserved by Eusebius Eccl. Hist., VI. , xliii). 

A. D. 256 (about). In an anonymous tract on the question of reb \p- 
tism, preserved among the works of St. Cyprian, the following pas- 
sages occur ; but the whole treatise is valuable and worth reading, 
and takes for granted that the Holy Spirit is not given in Baptism, 
but in Confirmation : " Whether in some respect he halts when he is 
baptized with the baptism of water, which is of less account, provided 
that afterward a sincere faith in the truth is evidenced in the Baptism 
of the Spirit, which is undoubtedly of greater account /" i.e., Confirma- 
tion. " We ought only to help them with the Baptism of the Spirit — 
that is, by the laying on of the hand of the Bishop, and the supplying 
the Holy Spirit." " By the laying of the hand of the Bishop the Holy 
Spirit is given to each believer, as the Apostles did to the Samaritans 
after Philip's baptism, and by this means conveyed to them the Holy 
Spirit" (Cypriani, Opera, Paris, pp. 353-55, 361, etc). 

Fourth Century. Very full evidence is to be found in this 
century. 

A.D. 305. Co. Elvira, Can. xxxviii. In cases of necessity, a faith- 
ful layman (who is properly baptized and not twice married) may 
baptize ; but if the man survive, he must bring him to the Bishop, that 
by laying on of hands he may be perfected (Canones, ed. Brum, ii., 
p. 7 ; Labbei Gone, Tom. i., col. 974). 

A.D. 314. Co. Aries, I., Can. viii. If any one comes to the 
Church from heresy, they ask him his creed ; and if they find him to 
have been baptized in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, only let hand 
be laid on him, that he may receive the Holy Spirit {Bruns, ii., 10S). 
See also Co. Laodicea, Can. vii., xlviii. 

A.D. 347. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, like many others of the fathers, 
often includes Confirmation under Baptism ; as the Benedictine ed- 
itor points out. 

Catechesis Lect., xviii., § 33. " You shall hear first about what is 
done directly before Baptism ; and then how you were cleansed from 
your sins by the Lord, with the washing of water by the Word : and 
how in priestly fashion ye are made partakers of the title of Christ ; 
and how the seal was given you of the Communion of the Holy 
Spirit ; and about the mysteries in the altar of the New Covenant" 
(Opera, Paris, 1720, p. 301). 

Catechesis Lect., xxi. " You became Christ's when you received the 
antitype of the Holy Spirit {i.e. , sacred oil or chrism), and all things 
happened to you in an image, since you are the image of Christ 



APPENDIX. 241 

He, indeed, was baptized in the river Jordan ; He ascended out of the 
waters ; then the descent of the Holy Spirit took place — like resting 
on like. To you also in like manner, after you have ascended from 
the fount of sacred streams, chrism is given, the antitype of Him 
with Whom Christ was anointed, Who is the Holy Ghost . . . and 
when the body is anointed with visible ointment, the soul is sanctified 
by the Holy and life-giving Spirit" (Opera, Paris, p. 316). 

A.D. 355. St. Hilary of Poitiers. One passage has been already 
quoted in the text of Lecture VI., p. 148. 

" For the guerdon and gift of the Holy Spirit was to be given by 
the laying on of hands to the Gentiles, at the ceasing of the works of 
the law" (on St. Matthew 19 : 3, Opera, Veronae, 1730, Tom. i., 
col. 762). 

A.D. 370. St. Optatus of Milevia, in Africa. The striking passage 
comparing our Lord's Baptism and Confirmation has already been 
given in Lecture VI., p. 147. 

" Oil when prepared is called chrism, in which there is a sweetness 
which softens the skin of conscience, shutting off the hardness of sins ; 
which prepares a throne for the Holy Spirit, so that, invited thither, 
all roughness being dismissed, He may willingly deign to make His 
indwelling" (De Schismate Don., VII., § 4, Paris, 1700, p. 106). 

A.D. 370. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona. 

" Might the Apostles alone bind and loose ? Then they alone might 
baptize, they alone give the Holy Spirit, they alone purge the sins 
of the Gentiles, because this command was given to none but 
Apostles. ... If, then, the power of the font and chrism, by far the 
greater gifts, has descended to the Bishops, they have also the right 
of binding and loosing" (ed. Migne, col. 1057). 

See also Sermon on Baptism, Migne, col. 1093. 

A.D. 380. St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. 

" Well, then, you were baptized, and then came to the Bishop, what 
did he say to you ? God the Father, Who regenerated you of Water 
and the Spirit, and has given you pardon of your sins, Himself anoint 
thee to life eternal" (De Sacramentis, II., vii.). 

" Then follows the spiritual seal, which you have read of to-day ; 
that, after the font ', this remains, that there be perfection when at the in- 
vocation of the Bishop the Holy Spirit is infused, the Spirit of wisdom 
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and Ghostly strength, the 
Spirit of knowledge and true godliness, the Spirit of holy fear, as if 
seven virtues of the Spirit" (De Sacramentis, III., ii., § 8, Opera 
Paris, 1690, Tom. ii., col. 360, 363). 
16 



242 APPENDIX. 

[It will be observed that these two passages cover the prayer of 
Confirmation, which has come down to us from his time. This is of 
the essence of Confirmation.] 

See also De Mysteriis, cap. 7, Tom. ii., col. 336 ; De Sancto Spiritu 
I., viii., § go, Tom. ii., col. 619. 

Ambrosiaster. In Hebrews 6 : 3. 

" Laying on of hands, by which it is believed the Holy Spirit can be 
received ; which after Baptism is wont to be done by Bishops for the 
Confirmation of unity in the Church of Christ." 

[This is quoted by Bishop Jeremy Taylor (Works, ed. Eden, vol. v., 
p. 644) and Bingham (" Antiquities," XII., iii., § 6), by Bishop Charles 
Wordsworth, of St. Andrew's (" Mending of Nets," p. 15), and by 
Sainte-Beuve (De Sacramentis, Paris, 1686, p. 130) and some others. 
I have not been able to verify it.] 

The passage is incorporated in the commentary of Primasius (a.d. 
550) on Hebrews 6. 

A.D. 379. St. Jerome, priest. 

[It has been said that toward the end of the fourth century trust- 
worthy tradition in some points was dying out. In arguing against 
Helvidius, the impetuous Jerome invented his argument, and, as Bishop 
Lightfoot points out, he is not consistent to his own theory 
(" Galatians," 6th ed., p. 259). In his treatise against the Luciferians 
he exhibits much youthful impetuosity, and quotes as Scripture a text 
of infinitesimal, if any authority, which he has not admitted into his 
own text, in order to gain a point against his adversary.] 

He introduces the Luciferian, asking, " Don't you know that this is 
the custom of the Churches, that on the baptized hands are afterward 
laid, and so the Holy Spirit is invoked ?" 

St. Jerome answers, " I deny not that this is the custom of the 
Churches, that to those who have been baptized by Priests and 
Deacons, at a distance from larger towns, the Bishops go out to lay 
on hands for the invocation of the Holy Spirit." He acknowledges 
the custom, but, he argues, What of those who die before they are 
Confirmed ? " Perchance the eunuch must be believed to be without 
the Holy Spirit, because he was bapiized by Philip the Deacon, of whom 
the Scripture says, ' They went down both of them into the water. 
And when they went away from the water the Holy Spirit came on the 
eunuch.' " 

[This interpolation is clearly to meet a difficulty about which there 
has been continual discussion ; and the safest determination arrived 
at is, that while Bishops are bound to do all in their power to confer 



APPENDIX. 243 

the grace, and will be held responsible for culpable or careless 
neglect ; yet we do not believe that God will punish the faithful for the 
carelessness of His Minister. The difficulty was soon felt ; and this 
is how the Council of Elvira (a.d. 305) met it : " If a deacon be a 
Rector and have baptized any in the absence of Bishop or priest, the 
Bishop must perfect them by benediction ; but if they die first, each 
may be justified under the faith he professed."] 

A.D. 380. Damasus, Bishop of Rome, the patron of St. Jerome. 

" It is the office alone of the Apostles and their successors to give 
the Holy Spirit. . . . Not one of the seventy disciples is read to 
have given the gift of the Holy Spiiit by the imposition of hands" 
(Ep. v., Labbei, ii., 879). 

A.D. 381. Co. Constant., I., Can. vii. Quoted above, p. 234. 

A.D. 390. St. Chrysostom has several passages, generally rhetori- 
cal. Here is one. Having spoken of St. Paul's laying hands on the 
Ephesians, he says : " Hence is displayed a great dogma, that, they 
who are baptized are perfectly cleansed from sin. For had they not 
been cleansed, they would not have received the Spirit, they would 
not have been thought immediately worthy of the gifts." Then with 
personal application, he says : " We have received remission of sins, 
sanctification, participation in the Spirit, adoption, life eternal. What 
more do you wish? Signs? But they are done away. You have 
faith, hope, charity, which remain : seek these, they are greater than 
signs" (Horn, in Act., xl., § 2, Tom. ix., 339). 

A.D. 395. Prudentius, the beautiful Spanish poet, has continued 
reference to the chrism traced with oil on the forehead (Hymn on 
going to sleep, 1. 125 ; Arevali, Tom. i., 307 ; Apotheosis, i., 447 ; 
Psychomachia, 358, ii., 619 ; Contra Symmachum, i., 586, ii.. 

75i). 

Fifth Century. A.D. 402. Innocentius I. " But about seal- 
ing infants, it is clear that it must not be done by any but a Bish- 
op. For though presbyters are priests, they have not the high- 
priesthood. But that this should only be done by Bishops, that 
they either seal or hand on the Holy Paraclete, not only the cus- 
tom of the Church shows, but also the passage in the Acts of the 
Apostles which says that Peter and John were directed to hand on 
the Holy Spirit to those who had been already baptized" (Labbei, ii., 
1246). 

[This passage is continually quoted and incorporated in the writ- 
ings of Theodulf of Orleans, Alcuin, Magnus of Sens, etc., in the 
eighth and ninth centuries.] 



244 APPENDIX. 

A.D. 405. St. Augustine. As we should expect, there are many 
references in many ways to Confirmation. 

" Wno now expects this, that they on whom hand is laid, that they 
may receive the Holy Ghost, should immediately speak with tongues? 
No ; but invisibly and secretly the love of God is understood to be 
inspired in their hearts on account of the bond of peace" (De Bap. 
Con. Donat., III., xvi., § 21, Tom. ix., col. 116). The same argument 
is repeated in Ep. Joh., cap. 4, Tract vi., § 10, Tom. iii., pars 2, 
col. 858. See also De Trim, Lib. xv., § 46, Tom. viii., col. 999, etc. 

A.D. 440. St. Isidore of Pelusium. 

Philip, that converted the Samaritans, was not an Apostle, " for 
Peter and John, the Apostles, went down from Jerusalem, and con- 
veyed to them the grace of the Holy Spirit. . . . He baptizes as a 
disciple, but the Apostles complete the grace, for to them was granted 
the power to bestow so great a gift" (Ep. i., 450, Paris, 1638, p. 214). 

A.D. 450. Anonymous commentary on St. Matthew in St. Chrys- 
ostom's works, Tom. vi., p. 770. In this there is the following 
striking passage : 

"He that has not been so baptized as to be thought worthy to 
receive the Holy Ghost, has indeed been baptized in body, and his 
sins have been forgiven, but in soul he is a catechumen. For it is 
thus written, f He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His ; ' 
because the flesh puts forth worse sins afterward, since he has not 
the Holy Spirit in him, preserving him, but the Temple of his body is 
empty. Afterward that Spirit finding the house empty and swept 
with doctrines of faith, as with brooms, he enters there in sevenfold 
power, and dwells there, since words of faith, which we call brooms, 
cleanse from ignorance, but not from sins or lusts." 

St. Leo I. has many passages, some of which have been given in 
Appendix II., page 234. 

A.D. 450. Gennadius, Archbishop of Constantinople. 

" When they believe, they are baptized ; when they have been bap- 
tized, they submit to the laying on of hands of the Bishop, for the 
participation of the Spirit. . . . Watch, then ; for if you live care- 
lessly you may not be baptized again, and again receive the Holy 
Spirit by the laying on of hands" (preserved in CEcumenius, in Ep. 
ad Heb., Opera, Parisii?, 1631, Tom. ii., p. 355). 

ISivCli Century. A.D. 550. Primasius, Bishop of Adrumetum, 
commenting on Hebrews 13 : 25, incorporates the saying of Origen 
given above, " The gift of the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism by the 
laying on of hands of the Bishop" (Migne, col. 794). 



APPENDIX. 245 

A.D. 590. St. Gregory the Great. 

" By us indeed the faithful come to Holy Baptism, by our prayers 
are they blessed, by the laying on of our hands they receive the Holy 
Ghost from God" (Horn, in Evangelia, xvii., Opera, Paris, 1686, 
Tom. i., col. 1505). 

Seventh Century. A.D. 630. St. Isidore of Seville, born A. d. 
560, died A.D. 636. 

" Just as in Baptism remission of sins is given, so in Unction the 
sanctification of the Spirit is applied. The laying on of hands is 
that the Holy Spirit, invoked by the blessing, may be invited to 
come. For then that Paraclete willingly descends from the Father 
after the bodies have been cleansed and blessed" (Origines, vi., 18, 
Opera, Coloniae, 1617, p. 52). 

This passage is a reminiscence of Tertullian, De Baptismo, quoted 
above. 

"After Biptism the Holy Spirit is given by the Bishops with 
laying on of hands" (De Off. Ecc, II., xxvi., Opera, p. 412). 

A.D. 680. Archbishop Theodore, of Canterbury. 

" We believe that none is perfect in Baptism without the Confirma- 
tion of the Bishop, but we do not despair of their Salvation" (Capi- 
tula, cap. 4, Labbei, vi., 1875). 

A.D. 685. St. Cuthbert. In Bede's life of St. Cuthbert, as quoted 
above, p. 236. 

Eighth Century. A.D. 720. Venerable Bede (a.d. 673- 

735). 

" Had Philip been an Apostle he could have laid his hand on, that 
they might receive the Holy Ghost, for this is the prerogative of 
Bishops only . . . priests may not seal the forehead, which Bishops 
alone may do when they hand on the Holy Spirit to those who have 
been baptized" (Com. on Acts 8, ed. Giles, Tom. xii., 39). 

See also Homily on Octave of Epiphany, Tom. v., 166, 172 ; Com. 
on St. Luke 22 : 39, Tom. xi., p. 341 ; on Cant, i., Tom. ix., p. 226. 

A.D. 750. Isaac, Bishop of Langres. 

" That all take great care that no one departs this life without being 
Confirmed by the Bishop, lest he be in danger of losing his soul" 
(Can. Tit., xi., Can. xii., Labbei, viii., col. 623). 

A.D. 780. Alcuin quotes the saying of Innocent quoted above, A.D. 
402. Again, in his letter to Charlemagne : " When the white garments 
are taken from the baptized, it is fitting that they receive the Holy 
Spirit from the Bishop by the laying on of hand" (Hittorpius, Romae, 
1591, p. 83, bis). 



246 APPENDIX. 

Ninth Century. In this century almost all the statements 
about Confirmation are little more than the repetition of what has 
been said before. Theodulf of Orleans (in St. Greg., Mag. Oper., 
Paris, 1705, Tom. iii., col. 370) writes almost in same words as 
Magnus, Archbishop of Sens, in his letter to Charlemagne (Maitene 
de Ritibus, i., 62). 

A.D. S12. Jesse, Bishop of Amiens, writes (Ep. de Baptismo 
Gallaudi, xiii., p. 400) : " After this let the Bishop confirm him with 
chrism on the forehead. And laying on of hand is then conferred, 
so that the Holy Spirit, being invoked and invited by benediction, 
may descend upon them." 

A.D. 829. Co. Paris, VI., quotes the Homily of St. Gregory the 
Great, cited above. 

A.D. 830. Jonas, Bishop of Orleans. " The Acts of the Apostles 
teach us that it appertains to the Bishop alone to give the Holy 
Ghost to the faithful by the laying on of hands" 

(Lib. I., De Institut. Cleric, cap. 7. Quoted by Drouven, De Re 
Sacramentaria, i , p. 299). 

Tenth Century. A.D. 907. Auxilius quotes from St. Leo I. 
as above (Asseman, Codex Liturgicus, Tom. viii., p. 232). 

A.D. 999. Council of Poitiers, Can. ii.: "That no Bishop receive 
or require fees for absolution, nor for the gift of the Holy Spirit, unless 
a man make an offering with a willing mind" (Labbei, ix., col. 7S1). 

A.D. 924. Atto, Bishop of Vercellse, quotes the passage from Am- 
brosiaster, as above. 

Eleventh Century. The teaching begins to weaken. 

A.D. 1050. Ivo, Bishop of Chartres. " By the sign of the Cross 
those who have been baptized receive gifts of grace by the laying on 
of hands" (Sermon, Sti. Aug., Opera, Tom. v., Appendix, col. 407). 
Again : "Ye have received spiritual armor against invisible foes by 
the laying on of hands" (Opera, 1647, Tom. ii., p. 263). 

A.D. 1057. Peter Damian. " In Baptism the Holy Ghost is 
given for pardon, in Confirmation for fight" (cit. Sainte-Beuve, De 
Sacramentis, p. 199). 

A.D. 1070. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. " They must 
be baptized for the remission of sins, with a view to receive the gifts 
of the Spirit ; must be perfected by the laying on of hands of the 
Bishop" (Dupin, vol. ix., p. 12). 

Twelfth Century. A.D. 1135. Rupertus Abbas. 

" This is peculiar to Bishops alone, that they seal and hand on the 
Spirit Paraclete, which not only does the custom of the Church 



APPENDIX. 247 

show, but also the Acts of the Apostles," quoting Acts 8 and 19 
(Hittorpius, Rom?e, 1591, p. 529). 

A.D. ii-jo. Hugh of St. Victor. 

" Since in Baptism there was given full forgiveness of sins, what 
does Confirmation give? In Baptism the Spirit is given for forgive- 
ness, in Confirmation for strength. Without this a man can be saved 
if he does not decline it through contempt" (De Sacramentis, cap. 
22 ; Hittorpius, p. 736) 

Thirteenth Century. A.D. 1204. Innocent III. 

" By the anointing of the forehead the imposition of hand is be- 
tokened, which is also called Confirmation, because by it the Holy 
Spirit is given for increase and strength. This none but the chief 
priest (that is, the Bishop) may give ; since we read of Apostles only 
(of whom the Bishops are Vicars) that the Holy Spirit was given by 
the laying on of hands" (Decretal, Lib. i., Tit. xv., cap. 1 ; Corpus 
Jur. Cas., Boehmer, Tom. i., col. 114). 

A.D. T250. Innocent IV. 

" Bishops alone may seal the baptized on the forehead, because the 
anointing should not be offered but by the Bishop, since the Apostles 
alone (whose place the Bishops fill) are read to have given the Holy 
Ghost by the laying on of hand, which Confirmation or anointing of 
the forehead represents" (Labbei, xi., col. 613). 

A.D. 1270. St. Thomas of Aquinum. 

Confirmation " is to be given even to those who are at the point of 
death, that in the resurrection they may appear pet feet" (Summa, 
pars 3, q., Ixxii.. 8). 

A.D. 1280. Durandus, Bishop of Mende. 

"After Baptism there follows the Spiritual seal — that is, Confirma- 
tion, which is when the Holy Spirit is outpoured at the invoking of the 
Bishop. . . . In Confirmation, the fulness of the mystery of the Chris- 
tian Religion is fulfilled. For in Baptism remission of sins is given 
by the Holy Spirit. Here, however, the Spirit Himself is invited to 
come, that He may vouchsafe to descend into the heart which He has 
sanctified, and dwell there, and He is infused at the invocation of 
the Bishop," (Rationale, VI. lxxxiv., § 1, 2, Lugduni, 15S4, fo. 367). 

A.D. 1281. Archbishop Peckham, of Canterbury. 

" Many neglect Confirmation for want of watchful advisers ; so 
that there are many who lack the grace of Confirmation, though 
grown old in evil days. To cure this disastrous neglect, we ordain 
that none be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood 
that has not been Confirmed, except at point of death, unless he have 



248 APPENDIX. 

a reasonable impediment"|(Constitutions, Johnson's Canons [A.C.L.] 
ii., 277; Labbei, xi., 1160). 

This Constitution is the origin of the rubric after the Confirmation 
Service. 

Fourteenth Century. A.D. 1310. William of Paris. 

" When prayer has been offered over those who are to be confirmed, 
the Sign of the Cross is traced with chrism on their foreheads and 
hands being laid upon their heads, it is said, ' Peace be with you,' 
since at the laying on of the hands of the Apostles the Holy Spirit 
was wont to be given, and He is given now at the laying on of hands 
of the Bishops" (Lib. de Sacramentis. Quoted in the notes on S:. 
Gregory's Sacramentary, Opera, Tom. iii., pt. 1, col. 359, Paris, 
1705). 

A.D. 1330. James of Viterbo, Archbishop of Naples. 

Confirmation " was partly instituted by the Apostles, so far as the 
laying on of hands is concerned ; partly by the Church, so far as 
the unction of chrism, which we do not read the Apostles used" 
(Hist. Occidentalis, cap. 37. Quoted in notes on St. Gregory, as 
above). 

Fifteenth Century. A.D. 1422. Bishop Lyndewode (Pro- 
vincial, Oxford, 1679, p. 34) calls Confirmation "a Sacrament of 
necessity, and, therefore, that which may not be contemned." 

A.D. 1450. Dionysius Carthusianus. " When the Apostles which 
were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, 
Philip sent them word, asking that some of them might come to 
Samaria to lay hands on those who had been baptized, that by the 
visible sign they might receive the Holy Ghost. For to lay hands 
on the baptized was the office of the Apostles, as it is now of Bishops, 
who are their successors" (in Acta" Apost., viii., Paris, 1552, fo. 
76, b). 

A.D. 1495. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's. 

[Founder of St. Paul's School, the first school founded in England 
to teach Greek ; he was once nearly burned by Henry VIII., for his 
reforming tendencies.] 

" Confirmation is the Sacrament of the giving of the Spirit, traced 
back to and established at the time when one was sent by the Apostles 
to convey to those who had already been baptized at Samaria the Holy 
Spirit by the laying on of hands ; otherwise they would not have been 
reckoned as belonging to the Church" (De Sacramentis Ecclesise, 
§ 9, ed. Lupton, 1867, p. 92). 

" It is to be observed that Dionysius speaks of Confirmation in 



APPENDIX. 249 

such a" way as to teach, not that it is a distinct Sacrament, but 
something for the completion of Baptism, so as for it and Baptism 
to be one and the same Sacrament" (on works of Dionysius, ed, 
Lupton, 1869, p. 75). 

Sixteenth Century. The Reformation upheaval. 

A.D. 1530. See answers of Bishops and divines about Confirma- 
tion (Collier's Eccl. Hist., 1841, vol. ix., p. 195, sq.). 

Queen Elizabeth was confirmed by Archbishop Cranmer when three 
days old ; Edward the Sixth by the same, soon after birth. 

The Continental Reformers of Europe were greatly at sea about 
Confirmation, and their utterances infected many English writers, 
though, thank God, the Confirmation prayer has been retained with 
but slight variation. 

See George Witzel (1533), Methodus Concordiae, viii. ; Browne's Fas- 
ciculus Rerum Expetendarum, London, 1690, App., p. 759, and his Via 
Regia, London, 1690, App,, p. 710. 

A.D. 1597. Richard Hooker. " The ancient custom of the Church 
was, after they had baptized, to add thereto imposiiion of hands, with 
effectual prayer for the illumination of God's most Holy Spirit to con- 
firm and perfect that which the Grace of the same Spirit had already 
begun in Baptism" (Eccl. Polity, Bk. v., Ixvi., § 1). 

Seventeenth Century. A.D. 1630. Gabriel Albaspinseus, 
Bishop of Orleans. 

" No one had obtained the name of Christian, no one was thought 
to be a perfect Christian, who had not been confirmed and gifted with 
the gift of the Holy Spirit" (quoted by Van Espen, Jus. Eccl. Univ., 
Lovanii, 1753, Tom. i., 384). 

A.D. 1638. General Assembly of Presbyterians (Scotland). 

" Seeing Episcopacy is condemned, imposition of hands by Bishops 
falleth to the ground" (Acts of Gen. Assembly, p. 20). 

[This is a new departure.] 

A.D. 1649. Bishop Hal), of Norwich. Work, Oxford, 1837, p. 441, 
sq.; also Hamon L'Estrange, " Alliance," A. C.L., Oxford, 1846, pp. 
390, 402, etc. 

After the great rebellion the Bishops' Visitation Articles all insist 
on Confirmation, 

A.D. 1686. Bishop Pearson, Lect. in Acta Apost., viii. 

Eighteenth Century. A.D. 1750. Bishop Wilson, of Sodor 
and Man. 

" The effect and blessing of Confirmation is to convey the inesti- 
mable blessing of the Holy Spirit of God by prayer and the imposition 



250 APPENDIX. 

of hands of God's minister, that He may dwell in you. . . . Confirma- 
tion is the perfection of Baptism. The Holy Ghost descends invisi- 
bly upon such as are rightly prepared to receive such a blessing, as 
at the first He came invisibly upon those that had been baptized. By 
the imposition of the hands of God's minister, God takes, as it were, 
possession of you as His own peculiar creature ; He sanctifies and 
consecrates you again to Himself." (Sacra Privata, Oxford, p. 109.) 

A. D. 1710. Archbishop Wake, of Canterbury. 

" Does the Bishop give the Holy Ghost by the imposition of his 
hands in Confirmation ? 

" That we do not say, nor did the Apostles themselves do it. They 
laid on their hands, and God gave the Holy Spirit to those on whom 
theylaid them. And we piously presume that by the fervent prayeis 
of the Bishop, and the Church, those on whom he now lays his hands 
shall also receive the Holy Ghost, if they do but prepare themselves 
for it" (on Church Cateclrsm, 6th ed., 1761, p. 178). 

Nineteenth Century. A - D - lS 3°- Bishop Ravenscroft, of 
North Carolina, has an excellent sermon on Confirmation (Works, vol. 
i., p. 495, New York, 1830). 

The view of the present Archbishop of Canterbury has been al- 
ready given more than once; see p. IQ9. 

As a view of the Greek Church, to a certain extent, the following 
short extract is given : " Both these mysteries (Baptism and Confir- 
mation) complete one perfect whole, and having been joined, as now, 
are fulfilled in the Church before the Liturgy. Both are the door into 
the Church of Christ and the Kingdom of God, and, in consequence, 
the commencement of the other mysteries" (Leitourgike, by P. Rhom- 
potos, Athens, 1869, p. 259). 

See also Mason's " Faith of the Gospel," published by Messrs. 
Pott & Co., chap, ix., § 10, n. 

In certain Articles on Grace and Freewill, issued in the fifth century, 
it is said : " Let us have respect to the mysteries of priestly prayers, 
which have been handed down by the Apostles in the whole world, 
and are offered uniformly in every Catholic Church, so that the law 
of prayer determines the law of belief "" — ut legem credendi lex statuat 
supplicandi (Labbei, ii., 1616). 

St. Augustine has nearly the same idea : " Would that the slow of 
heart would so hear, that they would the more heed their prayers, 
which the Church always had, and always will have, from the begin- 



APPENDIX. 251 

ning till this world be finished !" (De Bon. Per., § 23)— ut magis in- 
tuerentur orationes suas. 

In accordance with this we must turn to the special Prayer of Con- 
firmation and see what we pray for. It is not for any particular 
grace, not for grace to keep our baptismal vows, not for anything, 
but for the Holy Spirit Himself in His sevenfold fulness ; 

Almighty and ever-living God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate 
these Thy servants by Water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given un- 
to them forgiveness of all their sins ; Strengthen them, we beseech 
thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase 
in them Thy manifold gifts of grace ; the spirit of wisdom and under- 
standing ; the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength ; the spirit of 
knowledge and true godliness ; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit 
of Thy holy fear, now and forever. Amen. 

This prayer has been offered in the Western Church from before the 
time of St. Ambrose. The only variation at the time of the Reforma- 
tion is that " immitte in eos" is rather paraphrased ' strengthen them 
with." 

In the Eastern Church the prayer has the same thoughts expressed 
at much greater length, as is their custom. But wherever the Church 
exists in the integrity of her ministry, the Confirmation prayer con- 
tains (i.) a thanksgiving for regeneration and forgiveness already 
granted, and (ii.) a prayer for the Holy Spirit. 

Anything, therefore, which would exaggerate modern mistakes 
about the meaning and value and effect of Confirmation is much 
to be deprecated. 



APPENDIX NN. PAGE 201. 

On the question of the Invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Conse- 
cration of the Holy Eucharist, reference may be made to the follow- 
ing books : 

Le Brun, Explication de la Messe, Paris, 1726, Tom. Hi., p. 212, 
sq. With the attack upon him of the Jesuit, Bougeant, Paris, 1727, 
and the reply of Le Brun, Defense de l'ancient sentiment sur la 
forme de la Consecration, Paris, 1727. 

Bishop Brett (the Non-juror), A Collection of the Principal 
Liturgies, etc., London, 1720, Dissertation 18, p. 122. 

Sir William Palmer, Origines Liturgicae, vol. ii., p. 136, jy., 4th 
ed., 1845. 



252 APPENDIX. 

Freeman, " Principles of Divine Service, " pt. 2, chap, i., § n, 
p. 196. 

The most complete appeal for the revival of the Invocation is 
" Primitive Consecration of the Eucharistic Oblation," by Rev. E. S. 
Ffoulkes, London, 1885. 



APPENDIX 00. PAGE 204. 

It will be objected that only a small part of the work of the Holy- 
Spirit has here been treated of. This is quite true. The Mission of 
the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is intermediate between the Advent 
of the Son in His Incarnation to redeem the world, and His second 
Advent to judge and condemn. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to 
complete the first, and to prepare for the second. It has been (rightly 
or wrongly) thought that it is beyond the scope of these lectures to do 
more than refer thus to the work of preparation for the judgment. 
For after all, the chief part of the work of preparation is the com- 
pletion of the previous work of the Incarnate Son. 



